Pretty Punk Beauty Junkie

Taking A Little Break

2011-03-07T11:18:00.000Z

I need a break for the moment, just a few days to get my head cleared. I've let a few things get on top of me lately and I need to get everything sorted and relax a bit. I love blogging, but it's hard to write when I'm not feeling particularly jolly. I will sort out the giveaway winners this week, I'm going to do it by hand and let Kizzy pick the winners out of a bowl. Things will be back to normal in a few days, just thought I'd let you all know that I've not disappeared. xx

Debenham's Sale

2011-03-04T13:31:00.000Z

Ooh before I forget! Not only has Debenhams got the Naked Palette back in stock and on sale at £28.80 here with free delivery, but there is a sale across the whole beauty department! Right now you can pick up the Urban Decay 24/7 Anniversary Set for only £54! With free delivery to boot, total bargain! You can pick it up on sale here.

Am I Dreaming?

2011-03-04T13:00:00.001Z

Last night I spent ages trying to hunt down something I thought I saw online. In my head it was a primer that was £4.50 ish. I swear I saw it in an email or online somewhere, but after going through my internet history and googling like a madwoman, nothing came up. I'm now convinced that I actually dreamt it up, maybe because I was reading cosmo late at night an saw a big add for the new Witch Skincare range. It sounds interesting and something that I'll probably try out, but that wasn't it. I remember looking up the ingredients and thinking "my skin might actually like this". I think it was a dream, a really mundane dream.

If this is actually jogging anyones memory, can you please let me know!

Today is really busy, we're meeting with a possible new bassist, I have housework to do and I need to package up some things and get to the post office. Speaking of post, nan got back back from her holiday at crazy o'clock this morning. She had a great time, but the rest of my Cherry Culture order hasn't turned up. The first lot came over a week ago and I ordered it all exactly at the same time. I never received a shipping notification from them either. Hhm getting concerned.

If I don't get a chance to pop back on here later Kizzy and I both hope you all have a great weekend!

Any idea what I'm talking about primer-wise? In my head it hasn't been released yet but was coming out soon. Have you picked up any of the new range from Witch? Do you think you might? It does sound quite enticing, but I'm going to have to do the whole ingredient reading thing again which gets old fast.

Cheap Thrills Thursday: Nyx Lipsticks & Liners

2011-03-03T17:24:00.000Z

After feeling a tad ripped off from the Nyx stand at IMATS, I thought I'd take advantage of Cherry Culture's 20% off sale and get my hauling on. Some of you probably know about my slight fear of buying from outside the EU, so it was that I made 3 simultaneous orders to keep my packages below that ominous £19 that will attract the attention of customs. Only one has turned up so far :( but I did use my grandmothers address and she's away atm, so hopefully they'll be waiting for when she gets back.

I love the round lipsticks! I think the texture is brilliant, really silky and they just glide on. My nan tried a couple out and described them as oily, but in a pleasant and comfortable way. The pigmentation was pretty good all round, except for Sash which was quite sheer. I love how there is a huge variety of shades in different finishes, but I wish there were some shade descriptions or accurate swatches! I hunted down lots of online swatches of these before buying and still ended up with a few rather overly frosty shades.

Thalia: rosey neutral, no shimmer

Sky Pink: shimmery baby pink, veering towards frosty

Fusion: deep fuschia with slight blue flash, no real shimmer, more of a lustre finish

Echo: nude medium beige, no shimmer

Doll: medium rosey pink-brown, almost a mlbb, no shimmer

Sash: frosty sheer pale pink, will look better layered

Pandora: shimmery violet, veering towards being frosty

Circe: similar to Echo but lighter and more peach toned

The lip pencils are nice, very pigmented and come in a great range of shades. It's a lip pencil, so I guess not much of a thrill, but some of these colours are actually pretty awesome.

Current: deep wine based mauve, not the red I was expecting (this is the long pencil)

Pinky: bright clean pink (this is the long pencil)

Fuschia: deep blue based pink

Hot Pink: very bright, almost neon pink

Nude Pink: peachy pink

Peekaboo Natural: similar to Nude Pink but deeper and less pink

Nude Beige: medium brown beige

Here's a colour corrected pic courtesy of Nero Photosnap. Looks a bit odd but the colours are pretty accurate and you can easily see the difference between those pinks.

round lipsticks cost just $2.50 here

long lip pencils are $1.60 here

slim lip pencils are $2.50 here

Shipping to the UK was very reasonable, this whole order cost just $10.05 which is equal to about £6.20 and they even threw in a free lipbalm. You can pay with paypal which makes things nice and simple too.

Hows that for a cheap thrill? Sadly not something you can pick up on the high street (not if you live in the UK anyway), but I think the extra bit of effort and the wait is worth it for those fab colours and cheaptastic prices!

An order for 4 round lipsticks including shipping to the UK comes to $19.43 which is approximately £12. Wait until Cherry Culture offer one of their frequent sales and hopefully we can get that total to under a tenner. 4 lippies for around the price of 2 weeks worth of cheap thrills. Beauty math = treats :)

NOTD Misa Wine Burgundy

2011-03-03T16:26:00.001Z

I've not posted a proper notd in forever! For those who don't know, I've suffered with onycholysis the last few months, which in my case means that 3 of my nails have separated from the nail bed. I've been treating them very carefully and have cut off any areas that weren't attached, whilst I pray to the nail gods that this is only temporary. I'm pretty insecure about my nails now and avoided posting photos until recently. With the assumption that nobody's bothered about not seeing my index finger (I doubt you'd want to atm) I shall try to post more notd pics again.

Let's move onto the polish :)

This had been sitting in my untrieds for ages, I used to wear red polish almost constantly and as a result I'm a bit uninspired by them now and don't go for reds that often. Last night I just had a hankering to have something dark, dramatic and red on my nails and I grabbed this beauty. What a fab polish! It went on like buttah! 2 coats of perfection, as opposed to my usual 3 for total opacity. It's a deep red with slight brown undertones (I guess that's what burgundy is right?). At normal viewing distance it looks like a rich creme. Close up and in bright light, a glowing shimmer comes out to say hi. I can't decide if it's a creme with subtle shimmer, a shimmer or a metallic finish. All that matters is it's a stunner that's making me feel quite cheerful and glam.

natural daylight

flash

I think this might be discontinued now but I don't think it'd be hard to find.

What are your feelings about red polish? Do you like it bright and cheery, glittery, or deep and vampy?

Nails Inc Launch Royal Wedding Limited Editions

2011-03-01T14:43:00.000Z

2 crystal cap polishes will be released alongside the Royal Collection, which is a set of 4 limited edition shades with gold caps.

Royal collection £25

4 limited edition glossy nail polishes to nail the regal look.

'Will' Union Jack crystal nail polish £15

Our bestselling crystal cap just got better! Glitzy and wonderfully British, this is the perfect gift.

'Kate' Sapphire crystal nail polish £15

Inspired by Kate's stunning engagement ring, this beautiful sapphire crystal cap is a must have for your dressing table!

You can sign up for the waiting list here

I don't think I will personally. I'm not keen on the lack of info regarding the actual polishes and I'm not buying anything just because of a crystal cap. The pale colours don't look like my sort of thing, otherwise I might have considered the set.

A bit more interesting then commemorative china, will you be getting anything from the Royal Wedding Collection?

*images and info courtesy of nailsinc.com

Product Fail

2011-02-28T15:51:00.002Z

Edit: I tried again quickly with the shadows. Scroll down for pics.
I don't usually post about things that I don't like, but this is so bad that I thought a warning might be in order. I'm talking about the Accessorize Back Stage Hot Smudge. It comes in a pretty cardboard compact, that has too much packaging to product ratio, with a duo applicator that has the standard sponge on one side and a useless brush on the other.

I'm pretty cautious about what I spend my mullah on, I have tons of products and know what works for me, but I thought that if these were any good they'd make a nice addition to my festival make up bag; it would have been dead handy to throw on a quick smudgy look. Sadly they are rubbish!

notice the absolute waste of packaging

I bought 2, why?! Black Cat comes with a sparkly charcoal shadow and a black liner, Back Stage comes with a deep shimmering khaki shadow and black liner with green sparkles.

Doesn't that look like it should be pretty? (please ignore the bad photo, I found it so difficult to capture this well as the sparkles are so tiny)

Wanna see just how crap these liners actually are?

Huge macro photos of skin are so flattering no?

Back Stage is on the left and Black Cat on the right. I did umpteen layers for this and it's still a patchy hot mess that went on terribly (using my own brush, the one included is a floppy piece of uselessness). These might make ok bases to go under shadow, I've not tried it yet, if not they're going in the bin.

The khaki shadow in Back Stage is quite nice, not particularly unique, I'm sure I have about 3 dupes in my stash, but it's ok, pigmented and blended well. I didn't use any base or primer under it here and went pretty light handed.

This was the only pic that wasn't so awful that it wasn't fit to be seen by anyone.

Black Cat is on the right.

edit: later on I tried out the shadows again, using the shimmering charcoal from Black Cat on the lid and the khaki from Back Stage in the crease. This came out much better and gives a good idea of the pigmentation. No primer was used.

The Black Cat shadow is alright, but trying to use it all over and without primer was a mistake. It wasn't easy to blend and looked messy. In the pan it reminded me of Creep from the Urban Decay Naked palette so I thought I'd do a quick comparison.

Creep is on the right, you can see they aren't even close. Creep is much darker and the shimmer is much more subtle. Black Cat has a fair bit of silver going on.

You can buy Black Cat here and Back Stage here for a fiver each, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Doesn't the mascara look pretty? Should I waste any more money trying it out? I'm such a sucker for cute packaging.

Have you tried these yet? Did you manage to make them work for you?

Accessorize Illusion Nail Polish Collection Swatches & Comparisons

2011-02-25T18:16:00.002Z

Put the kettle on and get comfy!

When I first saw these polishes in Superdrugs, I was so excited that I picked up all the duochromes (the others are glitters and not very exciting ones)! At £4 each and buy 2 get 1 free, how could I not? Actually, I thought I'd picked up all the duochromes, but I somehow missed Aztec! Luckily I found it a couple of weeks later (it's not in the bottle pics as I took them before I bought it). They are so pretty, the same finish as the Orly Cosmic FX and Mac Disney Villains collections- those dupes which seem to have been polishes of the year for most companies, it's like grown up sophisticated glitter. These are really similar to the Orly's, with that same uber sparkly duochrome (except for Bronze which is the odd man out as it's a smooth duochrome metallic). 4 of them are dupes, 2 real dupes and 2 that have slight differences. Find out more and see comparisons after the swatches.

All swatches are 3 coats, some could have gotten away with just 2 but 3 gave more depth and coverage. No base coat or topcoat was used, apart from Purple Dream which was a full mani. All of these had great application, dried quickly and felt smooth.

Purple Dream: inky blue to violet to pink

Pink Spice: bright pink to amber to orange

Purple Passion: deep purple to pewter

Mermaid: green to turquoise though the green shows only in very low lighting

Electric Blue: bright blue to purple to pink, typically my camera refused to capture it nicely

Aztec: pink to bronze to green

Bronze: pink to bronze to green in a smooth metallic finish, lighter than Aztec

Just to see how close the dupes actually are, I did a quick 1 coat swatch of everything on a piece of white paper (this is a handy trick if you're struggling to describe a colour, it makes it much easier to see). I could see some differences on the paper, but few were visible on the nails side by side.

Mermaid is an exact dupe of Halley's Comet (how many incarnations of this polish have we seen now?)
Electric Blue is an exact dupe of Lunar Eclipse
Purple Passion is an extremely close dupe of Out Of This World, the difference being the duochrome shift when you hold them very close to light. Out Of This World turns avocado green and Purple Passion turns to a sort of deep pewter with a green tinge. Also the base of the Orly is ever so slightly more of a blue-ish teal. On the nail the difference is hard to see.
Aztec is a close dupe of Space Cadet. Space Cadet has an ever so slightly lighter base. When you hold them close to light, Space Cadet shifts to a bright chartreuse whereas Aztec shifts to bright green. On the nail the difference is very slight.

Pink Spice is meant to be a pretty good dupe for the much coveted Mac Bad Fairy, I don't have Bad Fairy to compare it with though so I tried OPI The Show Must Go On. The OPI is deeper and brighter.
I've heard Purple Dream is a dupe for Orly's Galaxy Girl but it's not remotely close. Galaxy Girl has a green shift whereas Purple Dream shifts blue/purple/violet/pink. A closer dupe of Galaxy Girl is Misa Embroidered Emerald (though it's not as glitzy) or Urban Decay Bruise, sadly both are htf now. I couldn't find anything in my stash that was similar to Purple Dream.
I couldn't find a dupe of Bronze but I'd guess Nubar might make one. I used Misa Foxy & Folksy as a comparison of sorts, not at all similar but you'll see why I did it when you come to it.

In the comparison swatches I've left the Accessorize polish on the 2 outer nails with the comparison swatch on the central nail.

Aztec with Orly Space Cadet in the middle. Space Cadet is a touch brighter and the green flash is more yellow based.

Electric Blue with Orly Lunar Eclipse in the middle, perfect dupes to my eyes.

Mermaid with Orly Halley's Comet in the middle, perfect dupes.

Purple Passion with Orly Out Of This world in the middle. Very close but the Orly has more of a green flash. In the bottle the Orly looks more pink, but that doesn't translate onto the nail.

Pink spice with OPI The show Must Go On in the middle. The OPI is deeper, has more red in it and is more vibrant. Cousins but not dupes.

Bronze with Misa Foxy & Folksy in the middle. Not remotely dupes, but the pink is slightly similar. It was the only thing in my stash that even vaguely reminded me of Bronze. Can you see where I was going with it?

Really subtle differences that no one would notice, much cheaper and easier to find in the UK, though you do get only 10ml whereas Orly give you a generous 18ml. You can pick them up on the Accessorize Website, in selected branches of Superdrugs and sometimes they have the odd 1 or 2 by the till in Accessorize stores.

Cheap Thrills Thursday: Nail Decals

2011-02-24T17:27:00.000Z

I picked these up ages ago, took a quick photo, then promptly shoved them in my helmer and forgot about them! I love nail stckers, they are so easy to use and come in some really cute styles. I've seen some fab decals from a lot of bloggers, but very little from the UK. Why? Because seriously our selection is shit. There's barely anything to chose from to begin with and what there is is never what I want. Until I saw these beauties in Superdrugs

Andrea Fulerton Boutique Nail Tatoos

This is the only thing I've bought from the range so far, I'm sure I'll be trying some of the polishes at some point though. Cute and simple skull and crossbones in a matte silver finish, kind of like the matte side of tin foil.

£2.03 in Superdrug, how's that for a cheap thrill? They come in a few other designs too, I think the chains would make great accent nails, but the skulls are definitely more my thing. Have you tried any of the Andrea Fulerton range yet? What did you get?

I had to stay in and wait for the electrician today, so I've been on a swatching frenzy, trying to finish off a post I've been working on. The sun kept hiding though so it's still not quite finished!

Prestige Skin Loving Minerals Sunbaked Mineral Bronzing Powder 03 Pure Shimmer

2011-02-23T12:32:00.001Z

I saw this in Boots and thought it looked a bit like a MSF, I've never tried one and have been craving shimmer on my cheeks recently so thought I'd give it a go. It's normally £9.49 but had £3 off the other day so it was cheap and cheerful instant gratification. It comes in 3 shades but I chose the lightest, a slightly peachy flesh tone with pale yellow marbling, I wasn't so keen on the yellow though so I chose one with the least marbling - I kind of regret that now as when it's all blended it's really pretty!

It's got quite a nice list of ingredients, nice to see shea butter 3rd on the list, but I do spot carmine in there too so not vegan friendly.

This is the same swatch in different lighting.

Left to right: blended, yellow marbling, main base colour.

Look how pretty it is blended! I'm such a tool for not getting one with heavier marbling.

Here it is all blended together and applied heavily with a big brush. It gives a really nice finish that can be either subtle or really ott. It's also got great adhesion, which was important to me after struggling to get Elf's Gotta Glow to stick to my face.

Have you tried Prestige before? What to you think of these shimmery powders? I'm lusting after Rich Bronze, one of the other shades. I'd never tried Prestige but I also picked up an eyeliner which I rather like.

Apologies for yesterdays lack of posting, my friend woke me up and decided to spend the day with me. I'm rushing out to see everyone today- late as usual! This week is really busy but I'm going to try to keep up and hopefully will get Cheap Thrills Thursday out tomorrow. X

I'm On Bloglovin'

2011-02-20T22:41:00.001Z

Follow my blog with bloglovin

How did that happen? I just saw a comment from one of my readers Nicola saying she follows me on it. You know me, I haven't a clue about all this stuff, I'm just learning as I go along. So I've signed up and hopefully all will become clear. I'm not entirely certain what Bloglovin' is but heyho. Anyone wanna tell me?

I also added pages below the header with a few little bits n pieces. The most interesting is a shopping tab which will have links to all the different places I've shopped online, with a brief summary of how good the experience was, how long shipping took, etc. Might be handy, particularly to other UK readers who like to shop internationally.

Hope you've all been having a fab weekend, we've been having a Dexter marathon today so my boyfriend can get caught up.

Thanks Nicola for pointing out that Pretty Punk is on bloglovin!

xx

First Tape Mani: Blues & Silver Using Misa & Flormar

2011-02-20T17:00:00.001Z

I ordered a ton of the Catherine Arley holos from BeautyCosmetic.Biz and finally picked them up on Friday when I met my mum for lunch. The polishes were all really cheap, 29 polishes cost me £39 including shipping from Bulgaria, so whilst I made my order I thought I'd chuck in some of the Flormar neons they had for sale too. They aren't actually neon at all, but they are nice bright cheerful creams so not a total disappointment. I put on number 2 last night, a nice glossy bright baby blue. It took 3 coats but they all went on smooth and glossy and left no vnl, they did pull slightly from the tips though. I decided I fancied attempting a tape mani, so today I finished it off with this.

I used a vintage Misa Silver Explosion (sparkly dark silver foil) and Misa On The Edge (navy creme), both in 1 coat over the Flormar. The edges aren't as sharp as I'd like, but not bad for a first try. I also had some top coat issues and managed to get silver sparkles everywhere. None of that is very noticeable though and looks great, unless you look extremely closely.

Sorry the photos are a bit of the dark side, it's a dull and dreary day here in London. You can really see the sparkly foil finish of Silver Explosion though. Those wrinkly bits are dried top coat that was refusing to clean off, my fingers aren't actually that dry.

What do you think? Are you any good at tape manis, any tricks you've got to share? Or is it a bit much for you?

Do you mind these 3 fingered manis? I have painted all my nails, but my index fingers and right ring finger are still a bit of a horror and I don't want to gross you out. I've also cut back down to nubbins as the rest of my nails were getting to that stage where they curl in and I think that might be what caused the lifting in the first place.

Don't Forget To Enter The Giveaway!

2011-02-19T18:46:00.000Z

There's just under 2 weeks left to enter to win 1 of 5 tubes of Ahava Mineral Handcream and the main prize of Gosh Holographic and Golden Dragon polishes, along with a tube of the awesome handcream. I approached Ahava to ask if they'd let me run a giveaway because I really want you guys to try it, it's seriously the best handcream, my grandmother and I are both devoted to it. I bought the polishes a while ago because they are lovely and I know some of you have struggled to get them, so I thought they'd make nice prizes.

Hardly anyone has entered yet, where's the love guys? C'mon, I am giving away free awesome stuff! Sorry it's only small prizes but they are excellent ones and I just don't have the budget to go out and buy loads of prizes. I thought they'd be things that you might be interested in, if not then please tell me what kind of prizes you would like in future. I've got a couple of Sleek palettes I've been squirreling away for future giveaways, but I thought Gosh Holographic was a great prize, so tell me what YOU think.

Read the rules and enter here, last day to enter is March 3rd and it's open internationally.

Have a great weekend xxx

17 Photo Flawless Foundation Review- Soft Ivory

2011-02-19T17:28:00.002Z

I mentioned this in yesterdays FOTD but thought maybe a more in depth review could be helpful. Priced at £6.29 exlclusively at Boots, this foundation has some good points and bad.

The Good:

excellent coverage
natural look
matte finish, completely shimmer free
sets well, no need for powder
gives a smooth flawless finish
spf 15
excellent value at £6.29 for 30ml

The Bad:

limited shade range of only 6 options
pump dispenser releases too much product at once
broke me out (though I have this reaction to a lot of foundations so I'm sure most people would be fine)

Let's check out the ingredient list, one of those total pita labels that you have to peel apart, this one had 4 sides so was even harder to get at.

Long list huh? Though not too different from a lot of foundations I'd guess. Intriguing inclusion of Sapphire Powder, wonder what that's for. Most of those ingredients are gibberish to me, but I see lots of silicones near the top of the list. I also see talc, not really a surprise but something I'm not hugely keen on.

looks a bit like a fried egg!

That's a lot of product! For those of you that don't like to totally cover your face in foundation and only use a small amount, you'll find you get a lot of wastage. I had to remove the majority of it to blend it into my hand as it was far too much. You can also see that the pigment isn't totally blended, even after a good shake it's still like that, but you can blend it on the back of your hand before you apply. Check out the difference in colour between my skin and the foundation! I bought this blind as there wasn't any testers out, but this is the lightest shade. I normally take the second lightest with most drugstore brands, I'm fair but not really pale and I don't have extremely pink or yellow tones to my skin. Pale girls are probably not going to find a good match to their skin. The shade range is actually pretty useless and I can see a lot of people struggling to find a match.

Here it is blended. You can see it's still too dark though it's a lot better than it was, plus my hands are lighter than my face. The foundation has evened out my skin tone well and it looks very smooth.

I've not colour corrected this one, I think the finish on it might be easier to see. You can also see that although it doesn't match my fingers, it doesn't look horrifically obvious.

These photos were taken after 6 hours of wear. Please ignore my shiny t zone, I forgot to blot before I took the photos. After 6 hours the foundation hasn't budged, my skin looks even, flawless and natural. Despite how dark the product seemed, once blended it actually looks like quite a good match, my face doesn't look a different shade to the rest of my body. I went for lunch with my mum, a couple of hours before I took the photos and I asked her opinion. She thought it looked really good and a good match for my skin. A second opinion with foundation is always helpful as other people get to see you in 3D which you just can't do yourself.

I actually rather love this foundation. At first I thought it would be really dark and unnatural, but once I got used to applying it with a very light hand using my fingers (I can really work the product in and blend well with my fingers, I get a lot more control than I do with a brush or sponge and it gives me a more natural finish), it gave a lovely finish and great coverage. By late evening though, after about 13 hours of wear, my face started to feel irritated. I cleansed off my make up and found I'd broken out in a few blemishes and had areas of congestion- all within a day. I'd worn the foundation on a night out over the weekend and had experienced a similar breakout, but put it down to alcohol consumption (booze always gives me bad skin). It seems that I'm allergic to one of the ingredients, no idea which one though. I break out with most foundations though, so I reckon most people with fairly tolerant skins would be fine. I think I'll still keep this as I love the effect on my skin, but I'll be very selective about when I wear it.

There's been a fair bit of excited about the primer, mascara and liners in the range, but what about the foundation? Have you tried it yet? Could you find a good colour match?

Totally Baffled, Is This Picture Theivery?

2011-02-18T19:32:00.001Z

Edit: I've just checked deeper into my stats and 5 blogs have my picture up! Not one person has emailed me asking if this is ok, wtf?! Other than the first blog I saw, they all seem to be French blogs, the particular blog I mentioned was the only one who actually had anything in English on her blog that I could read. They all link back to me, but has anyone never heard of the fucking courtesy of asking before you use someones photo? I have to wait until I get a product in my hand before writing about it, or I link to other blogs saying how I'm interested in it (well I would but I don't even think I've ever done that!). Very occasionally I might use a picture from an online shop, but I'm promoting their products. Since when has it been ok to write entire blog posts using other peoples photos? If someone had asked I most likely would have said yes but this is unfucking believable. Since when have bloggers been so damn lazy?

I'm so confused and a bit annoyed tbh. Whilst checking my stats I noticed a referring link from a blog I'd never heard of. This blogger has used 2 of my pictures (the only ones in her post) to blog about a product she's never tried herself. So basically she has made an entire post based on my work. I spend hours taking photos for you guys, I know they aren't brilliant but I usually take about 80 photos per post and select the best ones. It takes me hours to set them up, take them and edit them and then write up a post and add them to blogger. You might think I'm crazy, but my crappy picture taking skills bum me out and I really want to do the best for my readers. Now this person has credited me and linked to my blog, but she didn't ask. I never ever would do this. Whenever I want you guys to see something that someone else has done, I always just post a link, I never use their actual picture! It's also always been from a blog I love and read, not from someone I've just randomly googled.

The article in question is my review of the Sleek Primer Palette. I don't copyright my pictures because tbh I have no idea how and I always thought they were too crap for anyone to bother nicking anyway.

The particular blog in question has this written on a copyright section of her blog- (I've edited it slightly because then technically I'm stealing from her blog)

All pictures and articles are Copyrighted

To use them you must-

Contact me
Credit me
Post a direct link to me

This person calls herself CopyCat, seems pretty accurate huh?

The first thing she mentioned is you should contact her before posting anything that belongs to her, obviously she feels that's important to her, but did she offer me the same courtesy? No. It's pretty easy to email me, you click on my profile and email, plenty of people have done that so I know it's not difficult. Or just comment on the original post.

Am I right to be annoyed about this? She did give me credit but she used my photos and wrote an entire article based on my work, without once ever contacting me. As far as I know she does not follow my blog and I've never heard of her or from her.

I've not contacted her yet, I'd like your opinion before I do. Is this considered acceptable as she did link back to me? Or am I right to feel a bit pissed off? I know this has happened with a few of you before and it always annoys me, why can't people just say "hey check this blog out" and post a link to your work?

FOTD Featuring Sleek Eye Dusts

2011-02-18T15:40:00.000Z

Actually, this look features a ton of new products, 17 Photo Flawless foundation, Models Own lipstick and a soon to be released blush from Sleek! I did this in a hurry as I was running late to meet my mum for lunch, all the photos were taken after around 6 hours of wear (I just touched up my waterline and lippie).

Eyes:

Sleek eyebrow pencil in brown

Elf Mineral eye primer (should have used UDPP but I'm running low)

Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Electric on lower lash line

Sleek Sunfest on lids

Sleek Hypnotic on crease and outer lower lash line

Sleek Jet Set on outer corner and inner lower lash line

Sleek Innocence just under brow arch, on inner corners and on center of the lid over Sunfest

Mac Mylar from brow bone to crease and to blend out crease

Mac Parfait Amour tiny bit above crease, outer v and outer lower lash line

Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Perversion on waterline and to tightline

L'Oreal Super Liner in black on upper lash line and flicked out

Sleek Eye Drama waterproof mascara in black, applied with Armani Eyes To Kill mascara wand

Face:

17 Photo Flawless foundation in Soft Ivory

L'Oreal Infallible concealer in 2.Porcelain

Sleek One finishing powder

Sleek Blush in Life's a Peach

Elf Studio blush in Gotta Glow on cheek bones (this never seems to adhere to my skin over powder though sadly)

Lips:

Models Own Coral - a matte peach shade

Thoughts on products:

I really love the 17 photo flawless, gives great coverage and sets without powder, but it's broken me out every time I've used it. My face was a disaster by the time I removed my make up and had come out in lumps and congestion, where it had been perfect before.
The new Sleek blush is fab, I can't stop wearing it! A gorgeous matte bright peach, but isn't as pigmented as some of their others and needs a heavier hand.
Models Own Coral lipstick is lovely, a matte bright peach (not coral really) and matches the Sleek blush quite well. I never thought I'd wear peach until I started wearing Sleek's Electro Peach Pout Polish. I picked this up in Boots yesterday when I finally saw a Models Own stand in person. Lovely colour, very wearable and had good staying power.
I like the Elf mineral primer but you can see it had began to crease after about 6 hours and was a mess by the time I came to remove my make up. It's great if you're only going out for a couple of hours though.
Sleek's One finishing powder is amazing, feels so light and cooling on the skin as it's 60% water and gives a lovely dewy finish.
Sleek's Eye Drama mascara has a lovely formula but that bendy wand does my head in so I use an old clean wand from my Armani Eyes To Kill.
Elf's Gotta Glow is raved about by bloggers but the shimmer never seems to stick to my skin!

Cheap Thrills Thursday: Sleek Eye Dusts

2011-02-17T11:36:00.000Z

Sleek Eye Dusts retail for a very affordable £3.05, you can pick them up from their site here, or if you're avoiding the site after the sale chaos, as many of you are, you can pick them up in Superdrugs. They come in 24 shades and weigh in at a large 6.5 grams. The quality is ok, some are smooth and some are quite chunky. The smooth ones out of this bunch are So Sleek and Sunfest, the rest are chunky so expect fallout. They aren't that hard to use though, if you dip your brush into the product and then swirl it in the lid to break up some of the chunks then they'll go on easier. They are very well pigmented, blendable and a little goes a long way. A nice little pick me up treat for some shiny colour.

that's how chunky some of them are (this is In The Nude I think), you can see I've managed to break the chunks down slightly in the lid.

Onto the pretty swatches:

Everything is swatched over Elf mineral primer

Pretty colours huh? And they're quite smooth once they're on.

Award: Versatile Blogger

2011-02-17T11:03:00.000Z

Aw Linsay over at Ramblings From a Beauty Newbie gave me this award :)

How cool! Go check out her blog if you haven't yet.

I have to award this to 7 other blogs and also write 7 things about me.

The 7 blogs I'd like to award this to are:

Aijuswhanakno- has great Fyrinnae swatches and does some beautiful make up looks
Make-Up By Katy-a pro artist who does some fab work, talks about great products and does some good step by step tutorials.
Secret Beauty Blog-a great mix of different beauty related posts
Stay Beautiful-she does some fabulous looks with a retro twist
Nihrida- the first blog I ever followed! Reviews, make up and nails, awesome stuff
Eyeconic MakeUp-lots of colourful looks
Beautifully Glossy- my most recent blog find, lots of different product reviews

7 things about me:

1. I'm a huge fan of Buffy and Angel, I've seen every episode atleast 10 times (it's probably closer to triple that) and know tons of useless facts.
2. I used to be on the tv show Grange Hill, where I was quite friendly with Anthony Costa from the band Blue. We lived quite near to each other, drank in the same pub and he introduced me to one of my ex's! I also went to camp with Amy Winehouse and we were good friends when we were little kids.
3. At one time in my life I had 11 pets all at once (2 rats, 2 gerbils, 2 chinchillas, 3 guinea pigs, a rabbit and a mouse).
4. I'm agnostic though I was brought up Jewish. I'm also one quarter Greek-Cypriot on my mothers side.
5. I'm extremely close to my paternal grandmother and we talk about everything, no subject is off limits! We have some hilarious conversations about sex. She has weekly manicures and always has fab nails.
6. I spent about a year and a half training to be a hairdresser. I loathe cutting hair (love colouring though!) and I got extremely bad dermatitis from having my hands constantly in water.
7. I suffer with OCD, I've broken about 15 sets of taps (now I have lever taps installed so I don't over tighten them) and 1 fridge. If I lose something I will spend hours looking for it as I can't relax when things aren't in their place.

Go check out all those blogs!

Thanks again Linsay! xx

Dead Sea Salt Scrub

2011-02-16T21:45:00.000Z

During my quest to purchase products with as few ingredients as possible, I came across the Dead Sea Body Scrub With Frankincense Oil by J. Malki - Yarden in Boots. It only contains only 2 ingredients, dead sea salt and frankincense oil. My mind is telling me this just can't be right, firstly it's pink and as far as I know, only Himalayan salt is pink. Secondly, frankincense oil is pretty strong undiluted and also expensive, this products retails for just £7.14. None the less, that's what the label says.

You get a large 300ml tub full of the oily pink sludge. It smells lovely actually, a very strong scent of frankincense. Frankincense is meant have antibacterial properties and be good for dry and mature skin so it really appealed to me. It's got a nice scrubby texture but it's not overly scrubby as the salt dissolves on damp skin. This stuff stings though, particularly on broken skin. Don't make the mistake I did and use it after shaving your underarms, it'll have you yelping in pain! The oil does leave skin feeling soft and moisturised and it feels like it's doing a good job of sloughing off all the dead skin cells. The site recommends it for sensitive skin and psoriasis sufferers but tbh I felt it was a bit strong for my skin. It's nice and I will use it maybe once a week, but for more frequent use I'll stick to my super gentle sugar based Ren Moroccan Rose Otto Sugar Body Polish, which feels and smells super lovely and comes in posh packaging (with a posh price tag).

If you're someone who loves a good scrub that you can really feel and you're looking for something natural, then I really recommend the Dead Sea Salt & Frankincense Scrub. Go easy on it though and don't use it on broken skin or after shaving. If you prefer something more gentle then this product probably isn't for you. Maybe give the Ren a try, though it is almost 5 times the price. Personally I like to make my own scrub out of fine sea salt, sugar, sunflower oil and lemon juice, though it's not quite as convenient it is really effective and leaves my skin feeling amazing.

What scrubs are you loving at the moment?

Good Things Skincare: SLS Free Face Wipes & Cleanser Review

2011-02-15T15:17:00.001Z

I have really finicky skin that seems to break out whenever I use certain products. I'm pretty sure I'm sensitive to SLS, SLAS, Sodium Lauryl Sarcosinate, Disodium Lauryl Sulfosuccinate and even Lavender! My mum also suffers from sensitivities, so I guess it's something that I've inherited from her. As well as suffering frequent breakouts, I also have extreme combination skin which can be very dry and also can be quite oily in places too. It has taken me years to realise that certain products destroy my skin, I wish I'd realised in my teens and not my twenties! So I've cut out detergents as much as possible and I'm now favouring more natural brands. They can be hard to get hold of though, pricey and often not very glamorous. Enter Good Things skincare which is available in selected branches of Boots and online.

Good Things is a gentle facial care range created by beauty journalist and author Alice Hart-Davis. The range is based on superfruit extracts designed to make the most of young skins (primarily under 25 but I'm older and loved it!). The products are free from Parabens, Mineral Oils, Petrochemicals, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Laureth Sulfate and anything derived from or tested on animals, plus they are vegan friendly!

The range consists of 10 products, anti blemish cleanser, creamy cleanser, night cream, day cream, mattifying moisturiser, eye cream, exfolaitor, blemish gel, face mask and face wipes. Everything smells fruity and yummy and the packaging is stylish and pretty; seriously the nicest packaging for face wipes that I've ever come across and they are damn effective!

Most face wipes seem to leave a greasy film and I usually need to use atleast 2 to feel like I've removed all traces of make up and dirt. Good Things Total Wipe Out Cleansing Wipes contain extracts of raspberry, cranberry, aloe and vitamin e. They manage take everything off with one wipe (2 if I'm wearing really heavy make up) and leave my face feeling squeaky clean. I don't get that horrid greasy feeling from them and my face feels so clean that I need to use moisturiser afterwards. The packet also seems to contain more liquid than others I've tried and the wipes are always really wet. Absolute love, my new festival essential! A pack of 25 wipes costs £3.56 from Boots.

The Fresh Start Creamy Cleanser contains extracts of grape and pomegranate, smells absolutely lush and leaves my face feeling clean and comfortable. They suggest using a face cloth dipped in hot water to remove it, but I like to apply it all over my face, massage in with my fingers and then use a facial brush to cleanse my skin with it and also to help rinse it off. I like a bit of a scrub and it helps to remove any bits of Duac, which is impossibly hard to get off my skin. The texture of the cleanser is more like a lotion than a cream and it spreads around easily. I use it to remove my eye make up too and it doesn't sting one bit! A 150ml tube costs £5.10 from Boots.

I like to really use a product for a while before I tell you that it's any good. I've actually been using these products for months and have finished my tube of cleanser. I'm hoping to go to the bigger branch of Boots that I purchased them at and buy some more, this time I might pick up the face mask too. So far I am really liking the products, they were exactly what I was looking for at an affordable price and not too difficult to get hold of, hurrah!

Have you tried any of the products in the range? Are there any other SLS free ranges that you like?

Urban Decay News: New Products & Packaging

2011-02-14T13:21:00.000Z

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I can't believe how beautiful it is today, the sun is shining so bright I've had to close the curtains just so I can see my laptop screen properly! I want to start by saying how fab the Urban Decay girls at House Of Fraser are, they ring me when new products come in and give me the scoop on new releases. I'm gonna start with the bad news, but don't worry, all the rest is good news!

Us Brits will not be getting the new Feminine, Dangerous, Fun palettes! Boo! Absolutely gutted that this is a US only release. If anyone wants to be lovely and CP me the Dangerous palette I will be forever grateful. If you're lemming these palettes you'll have to get a friend from the US to help you out.
We will be getting the new primer potions in the UK, though I think it might not be until next year.
If you didn't notice, there is a new primer potion coming out too, this one is gold and you can get a mini with the Dangerous palette.
The best news: finally they are changing the packaging for the primer potions and they will come in small tubes like the old special sauces. No longer will we have to resort to chopping up that pita plastic tube and depotting!
A new palette will be coming out later this year, though I don't have any info on it yet.
There will be a new Book Of Shadows out for the holidays. It's going to be their biggest yet, apparently it is massive! This is because it contains speakers! You can plug in your ipod and listen to your fave tunes whilst doing your make up. I can't wait to see this, though I don't own any of the BOS because they are too big for me to actually store anywhere. Atleast the new one will make use of it's size and be functional too.
The new blushes and the 24/7 shadow pencils are due out in the UK in March (it could possibly be May, they def said a month beginning with M, but I'm fairly sure it's March)

Stay tuned for more news, I'll update when I know more. A big thank you to the Urban Decay girls at Oxford Street House Of Fraser for keeping me in the loop.

What are you looking forward to from the new Urban Decay realeases? Does that new BOS sound fab or clunky?

News Just In!

2011-02-11T16:05:00.000Z

House Of Fraser just called me to let me know that the 24/7 anniversary set is in! I asked about it about a month ago and they took my details to ensure that I'd get one. Can't wait to check out Perversion! It might seem a bit pricey at £60 but that averages out to just £4 a liner, an absolute steal! My only complaint, why no Gunmetal, it's one of the most fab colours in the range!

Are you picking it up? Do you already have it? (our sisters in the US got this before us right?) What do you think of the 24/7 liners in general? Despite rushing out to buy them, I'm still not 100% sold tbh, I still feel the need to set them with powder and they are so soft that they need constant sharpening (meaning they don't last long). But they come in such great colours and are definitely one of the best liners I've tried.

Do You Want Deep Blue Lips Too?

2011-02-11T15:53:00.001Z

I'm talking about Evil Shades Obscurity! I bought it during the Cyber Monday 3 for 2 sale. Not one I'd usually go for (ok, in my teens I often wore blue lippy, but I also used to go bra-less in see through tops and have green hair, times have changed a tad), but I was curious and it was free. It's a deep blue shade, slightly metallic with violet sparkles. Usual price is an affordable $4.75.

I applied it pretty thick as it got quite patchy in some places, particularly on the top lip. I also blotted and did another layer to try to ensure it stayed as even as possible. It doesn't feel thick at all though. It's a bit awkward to apply as it's in a chapstick type, a bullet would have been brilliant or even a slim tube like Aromaleigh used to use. I had to use liner to tidy it up, it's quite hard to find a matching liner! I used Elf shimmer pencil in Twinkling Teal to very gently define the edges and tidy it up. Careful with liners, I'm guessing the Elf probably wasn't lip safe, I reckon it'd be hard to find a blue that is. I used as little as possible and mainly used it to spread the lipstick out neatly, avoiding actually using the pencil as much as I could.

I can't really see the violet sparkles but it's a lovely shade and really quite unique! Deep ever-so-slightly teal blue with a fabulous finish, metallic but not too much and no gloss

This was over bare lips, no balm. I've tried it over balm before and it wasn't going on well at all.

a slight pita to apply, but not too terrible and definitely worth it.

I've had a cup of tea and some french toast and it's worn pretty well! There's a bit of patchiness and some has worn away from my top lip, closest to my mouth, but it's still quite wearable, thumbs up!

Now to find a way of wearing this in public, any ideas?

Cheap Thrills Thursday

2011-02-10T20:07:00.000Z

This is a new series, I really hope you guys enjoy it. The aim of the game is to find something awesome for under a fiver. Not all of us have the budget for frequent big splurges, but a weekly treat keeps me smiling. Please comment with any cheap beauty thrills that you love too, the only rules are it has to be under a fiver (in your currency) and it has to feel like a nice little treat; no boring staples allowed.

This week's cheap thrill is one that has already made the blogging rounds, but I was doing the festival circuit and totally missed it! I picked it up on 3 for 2 with the photo finish primer and foundation. It's Boots 17 Mirror Shine Lipstick in Beehive. This is the perfect nude for those of us who feel that a concealer nude is too corpsy or one without a pink base doesn't look right. It's creamy and shiny and costs only £4.59!

This is a pale milky peachy-nude-pink. It goes on sheer-ish but can be built up pretty easily.

This is applied pretty heavily

This is a standard application, fairly sheer but definitely there

This is the most colour accurate

All That Glitters: Eye Kandy Review & Swatches

2011-02-08T17:28:00.004Z

Surely by now you must have realised that glitter is my crack? I'm addicted to all things sparkly! I'd seen the Eye Kandy site before but I have a slight fear of buying from outside the EU (I'm nervous customs will hold my items to ransom and ask for 3 times more than I paid), so when I saw they were on the IMATS exhibitors list I couldn't wait to check them out.

So what sets them apart?

Firstly, they have a huge range of shades 60 to be exact. Secondly, they come in 3 different types:

Fine- the largest and sparkliest size .008

Sugar: also .008 but this is transparent iridescent glitter and really reflects well for a super sparkly look.

Super Fine: between .004 and .006, extremely fine, less sparkly and more subtle

They call their glitters "Sprinkles (glitters)", they also sell "Sprinkles (minerals)" which are pure pigment powders with no fillers. So I'm guessing they are just plain Mica? I passed on these as I have a ton from Coastal Scents, plus the colours looked pretty basic.

The Sprinkles are meant to be used with Liquid Sugar which is a water and alcohol based foiling liquid. You get a 30ml bottle which is huge for a foiling solution. It is alcohol based, but even my sensitive eyes seem to be fine with it.

You can never have too many foiling mediums or pots of glitter so I paid out £50 for 10 glitters and a free bottle of the Liquid Sugar.

Eye Kandy recommend you put them over an eyeliner so that the base is more solid.

Pixie Stick Fine: light to medium limey green- swatched over UD 25/7 Graffiti

Sour Apple Fine: a mix of yellow green and aqua- swatched over UD 24/7 Covet

Chicklet Super Fine: aqua- swatched over Elf shimmer pencil in Twinkle Teal

Hard Candy Super Fine: sky blue- swatched over Boujois Bleu Original

Marshmallow Sugar: iridescent white- swatched over a shimmer white pencil from Per Una

Honey Drop Super Fine: nude gold- swatched over Elf shimmer pencil Blissful Blush

Licorice Stick Super Fine: lavender based grey and silver- swatched over UD 24/7 Gunmetal

Rasberry Blast Super Fine: black and red- swatched over UD 24/7 Rockstar

Lollipop Sugar: iridescent bright (almost neon) fuchsia violet - swatched over UD 24/7 Ransom

Peach Fizz Sugar: Iridescent bright peach with strong yellow shine- swatched over UD 24/7 Eldorado

They are all really pretty but I am baffled, 3 of the shades I bought don't seem to exist!

Sour Apple says F on the label but the site says SF

Chicklets says SF on the label but the site says F and spells it Chiclets

Rasberry Blast says SF on the label but the site says it's F and also spells is "Raspberry" (the correct way).

My Chicklets and Rasberry Blast are both most definitely SF, I really wanted them Fine as it's sparklier but they only had SF (they mostly only had SF in everything which was a pain). I'm confused why the site says otherwise.

I'm not a huge fan of the Super Fine size, it's too small and subtle. In dull natural lighting (like outdoors on most days here in the UK) the SF has no shine and looks like grit. Not a huge problem for me as I'd wear it mostly at night where the lights can hit it, but I would have preferred the bigger size.

There also seems to be discrepancies with weight. They are all supposed to weigh in at 3grams, 2 of my jars (Peach Fizz and Pixie dust) had the sifters removed to fit more in and were very full, the rest not so much and the Super Fine ones were half empty. I appreciate they are smaller so take up less space but I am pretty certain there is no way they could weigh in at 3grams, I wish I had some scales to actually weigh them. Honey Drop is the worst, without the sifter (I removed them all to get to the product easier) the jar is only about 1 third full, seriously.

I also wanted to compare the Liquid Sugar with another foiling solution.; I used Duraline from Inglot here

Rasberry Blast SF

Ingot's Duraline on the left and Eye Kandy's Liquid Sugar on the right

I felt like I had more control with the Liquid Sugar but the Duraline felt so much smoother after it had dried, whereas the Liquid Sugar swatch felt slightly gritty. Hours later and the Duraline swatch still looks fresh, the Liquid Sugar has lost some glitter.

The other swatches have mostly stayed on fairly well and look pretty good, but I think that's because I used a base under them all.

To some up

I like the Eye Kandy colours, they offer a good selection and I like that they offer different sizes. There seems to be some inconsistencies between the site and what I actually bought, but over all I'm fairly pleased. The Liquid Sugar is ok, I will use it but I prefer the Duraline from Inglot and I'm sure some of you would be concerned to use an alcohol based product on your eyes. The main thing I like is the selection of different coloured glitters. Aromaleigh did this incredibly well, I wish I'd bought more than I did before it closed. Coastal Scents sell glitter but only a few shades.

What is your favourite glitter? Where sells a really great selection of shades? What do you think of Eye Kandy?

Read on for more pics

The Cheapest Primer Going- but is it any good?

2011-02-07T17:02:00.000Z

When I heard that Boots were bringing out a primer for under a fiver I kept checking those 17 counters for weeks in the hope of finding it. Eventually I saw a Photo Flawless display, but the primers were sold out already! Cue 2 days later in my local branch and the display wasn't out, I checked through the draws though and found full boxes, hurrah. The security guard did give me a bit of a telling off for rummaging in the draws, but I had my prize (I also got the foundation and an amazing lipstick on 3for2- more of that to come).

I have one bug-bear with it- there's no ingredient list anywhere. I really dislike not knowing what's in the things that I put on or into my body, plus I am a big believer in comparing ingredient lists. Nevermind, I'm going to assume it's arsenic and asbestos free (believe it or not, a lot of talc isn't treated properly and contains trace amounts of asbestos- just what you want to be putting on your face everyday huh?).

The most well known of all the primers has got to be Smashbox's Photofinish, so how does it compare?

17 photo flawless on the left and smashbox photofinish on the right

You can see that the smashbox is crystal clear, whereas the 17 is milky in appearance. They have similar textures, with the 17 being possibly the tiniest bit creamy. I've tried both of these out under foundation (they both perform well) and I'm currently sitting here sans make up, with one side of my face wearing the 17 and the other wearing the smashbox.

I gotta tell you, and you might have to try it for yourself; I think I prefer the 17. The difference is barely anything, but the 17 side feels a bit softer and has stayed ever so slighter more matte than the Smashbox. My skin is finicky and a lot of things break me out, so I only use primers very rarely and expect to break out the next day. If you're concerned that you might have a reaction or if you're on the lookout for a good and affordable primer, give it a go and see what you think; it's not a lot to lose if you don't love it.

Price is £4.99 for 8ml (£6.24 per 10ml)

Smashbox £29 for 30ml (£9.67 per 10ml)

Buy it when 17 is on 3 for 2 to maximise the pennies- later in the week I'll show you that fab lipstick which I picked up as my freebie.

Blog Changes, What Do You Think?

2011-02-04T15:51:00.000Z

I'm so proud of myself, for reals. I've always wanted to increase the width of the blog posts area, but every time I tried I made a total mess of it. Despite a rotten hangover, I somehow mustered up a spark of brilliance and did it! The main reason I wanted to?

I can add the extra large sized pictures! Now you wont need to click to enlarge and you'll be able to read the writing on products etc :)

I also changed the colour scheme about to make it easier to read. It's not quite me and it feels a bit odd at the moment, no bright colours and a complete lack of pink, but it's a lot easier on the eyes.

Let's 'av another one

I've been playing with nero photoshop, just colour correcting, contrast and exposure, but I've been able to get some cool pictures for the band. I love how upping the exposure seems to make skin look poreless and I can really bring the red out in my hair by upping the contract and adding a bit more red into the colour. I am not a techie and previously all I'd ever done was crop a photo so I'm quite pleased with myself.

So what do you guys think of the new blog layout?

Back to bed and the food network for me. Have a great weekend! xxx

Sleek MakeUP i-DIVINE Primer Palette Review, Swatches & an EOTD

2011-02-03T16:40:00.009Z

This was a reader request from birminghamlady- Sorry it's a day late, the bateries in my camera needed charging!

During one of their many facebook comps I mentioned that a cream shadow palette to use as eye bases would be awesome, and Sleek came through! Not quite what I had in mind, I suggested mattes and bright primary colours (notice there is no bright yellow, hot pink, etc) with maybe a couple of metallics. This does the job though and you can generally find a shade to go under any shadow. Can you see what else is new? They've added a brush instead of the foam applicators (which Sleek manage to actually make worse than most). The brush is crap though, I tried to swatch with it and got hair in the white shadow so gave I up.

All swatches are done with a brush because that's what most of us use on our faces.

I'm not going to name the shades, as I'm sure the insert is wrong (check it out). That bottom right shade is peach btw, not bronze or copper. The shade next to the black is shimmery neutral and next to the peach is pale gold.

Most of the colours are bright, shimmery and opaque. The white is a bit sheer and so is the beige and gold. The black doesn't have shimmer. All of them felt creamy but not greasy and they could easily be built up using a brush. Application is fine with fingers but a synthetic brush makes it easy to blend and build up colour.

here is a selection of some really crap shadows swatched on my hand with no primer. Despite trying to layer them on, most of them are barely visible. I don't wear these much at all and definitely not without a good base.

here are the same shadows swatched on top of the Sleek primers. I only put shadow on the top part of each swatch, so you can see the difference.

Much better! The base is slightly sticky which really helped in gripping the colours. The pink and red both contain tiny glitter which held quite well. Despite the fact they are shimmery, the peach at the end retained most of it's matte effect and the taupe retained it's satin texture. The white is actually a duochrome with an orangey violet shift (didn't come out in these pics sadly), the Sleek base really brought out the duchrome.

But what are they actually like on the eyes?

Please excuse these. I didn't have my contacts in and I'm blind as a bat without them, putting liner and mascara on becomes almost an extreme sport, so I went for something as simple as possible.

on the left I used elf mineral eye primer, on the right I used UDPP

I used the pink from the Sleek palette on my lids and the pale gold on the crease.

shadows were from the 88 shimmer palette as they are quite prone to creasing so I thought they'd make a good test subject.

I lightly brushed the sleek primers on with a synthetic brush and blended them in before putting on my shadows. They felt comfortable on and not heavy or noticeable, though I went quite light handed with them. Shadows went on very well over the top of them,I didn't have to pack them on, there was no fallout and they blended easily.

So how did they fair later on in the evening?

Oddly enough, the elf did better than the UDPP, but I didn't use as much UDPP as usual as I was struggling to get any out, so that could account for it. This was taken at about 10pm, after band practise (not hardcore though, so I wasn't dripping in sweat or anything), having a little cry because I thought I busted my camera and general rushing about. The colours still look fresh and vibrant (irl this was much more obvious) and no creasing. Don't believe me?

Overall I really like the primer palette and think I'll get good use out of it. The only thing that let it down was the shade selection and lack of mattes, oh yeah and the utterly craptastic brush. I wouldn't use these without a proper primer underneath though, partly because it's become a habit to always wear primer and also because I get pretty bad creasing if I don't.

Rating: 4/5 better colours and more mattes would have bumped this right up.

Are you looking forward to picking up Sleek's primer palette? Love it or leave it?

Love Your Hands Giveaway With AHAVA & GOSH

2011-02-03T13:31:00.002Z

I have been squirrelling away prizes for upcoming giveaways for a while now. I contacted Ahava to ask if they would sponsor a giveaway, as I really want you guys to try out the mineral source hand cream which I love. They sent me one for review and offered me 5 to give as prizes to you lovely lot! Thought I'd make this extra special by having a first prize winner and adding some extra special goodies :)

First prize is a tube of Ahava mineral source hand cream and 2 of the most coveted Gosh polishes, Golden Dragon and Holographic! Sorry there's no Rainbow, I think it's discontinued and I couldn't find a bottle anywhere.

4 more winners will each receive a tube of the hand cream.

edit: if you already have the 2 Gosh polishes, feel free to state in the comments that you're just entering for the Ahava handcream.

Giveaway is closed

~~Rules:~~

~~This giveaway is open internationally.~~

~~Please keep all your entries in one comment to make it easier for me to count up the entries.~~

To enter you must subscribe publicly with GFC and comment on this page with your google friend connect name and email address, so I can contact you if you're a winner. 1 entry

~~For extra entries:~~

Add me to your blogroll (or let me know if I'm there already) 1 entry

~~Post about this on your blog with a link, the side bar is fine 1 entry. If you use a picture 1 entry (please link to your blog in the comments so that I can check)~~

~~Tweet about this giveaway on twitter 1 entry (please add a link so I can check)~~

~~You can have up to 5 entries~~

~~The giveaway will close on March 3rd, as long as your comment is dated before March 4th you are good to go :)~~ - The giveaway is now closed and the winners will be announced very soon, I'm just taking a little break to get caught up on life and clear my head xx

I will be posting out the prizes myself after I've announced the winners and received addresses. You have 72 hours to reply to my email with your postal address, if not then another winner will be chosen.

Good luck! xxx

HG Hand Cream (and my gran's)- AHAVA (review & giveaway)

2011-02-03T12:53:00.000Z

Years ago, somebody came back from a trip to Israel and gifted my nan a load of products from Ahava, ever since then we've both been hooked! I've tried lots of different products from them (all have been great, I especially love the face mask and body lotion), but this is the one I can't live without (my nan too, but the foot cream is also her HG). The mineral hand cream (you want the one that looks like the picture, not the Dermud range which doesn't have the same amazing texture) is in a league of it's own. It sinks in instantly, and leaves hands velvety smooth and not greasy. As soon as I use it my cuticles look instantly better and the best thing- it doesn't dull a mani! You have to massage it into the nails and cuticle, but it leaves a gloss on the nails, making it the perfect finishing touch to any mani. On the rare occasion I've had a pro mani, I've taken this along with me as it's so much better than any cream they use, plus you only need to use a tiny amount.

Keeping my hands well moisturised is really important to me, especially at the moment since I've chopped my nails down and I'm trying to cure the lifting problem. I've got a tube of this on my bedside table and one in my handbag, I've tried tons of different hand creams over the years and whilst there are some I like, nothing gives those instant results.

Ahava sent me some info, which is quite helpful and I agree with it, so I'll add it to the very bottom of this post if you fancy knowing a bit more about the product. Really all you need to know is it is brilliant, try it and you'll be happy you did. You can buy it here with a £3.50 postage charge, which should cover most reasonably small orders around the world. If you're placing a large international order and it's fairly heavy, they'll get in touch for the extra postage. Or you can win a tube of the mineral source hand cream in a giveaway! Keep your eyes peeled for it :)

Rating: 5/5! HG status, love <3

Some info from Ahava-

Ahava Source Mineral Hand Cream (RRP £11.00 for 100ml) is an extremely rich yet light hand cream, suitable for all skin types including sensitive skin. Rapidly absorbed, Source Mineral Hand Cream provides hydration at the basal layer to promote skin cell renewal that revitalises chapped, dry hands and literally feeds the skin with nourishment to keep hands soft, satiny smooth, youthful looking, and healthy, Source Mineral Hand Cream draws on the highly therapeutic properties of the wondrous Dead Sea minerals and includes Ahava’s unique Dead Sea mineral complex, Mineral Skin Osmoter™.

Ahava’s Special Treat For Winter Hands:
Whenever you wash your hands, pat dry then, gently massage in Source Mineral Hand Cream. The skin absorbs the gentle and highly effective cream, quickly, and doesn’t leave the oily residue that other hand creams tend to leave. As well as moisturising at a deep level encouraging skin cell renewal, the Cream helps protect the hands from the damaging effects of the cold weather.

Cold weather and the dehydrating atmosphere of central heating, the moisture-sapping side-effects of putting on, and taking off, our gloves can have a detrimental effect on our skin, leaving it dry, chapped, and sore. The Dead Sea mineral complex contained in Ahava’s Source Mineral Hand Cream smoothes away rough, dry skin, and helps soothe the soreness associated with cracked skin. People with eczema and psoriasis on the hands will benefit hugely from using the cream. For an intensive, weekly ‘winter’ treat draw on the beneficial properties of Dead Sea minerals by creating a hand-spa. Add a handful of Ahava’s Dead Sea Bath Crystals to warm water, soak hands for 10-15 minutes and use this time to relax and unwind; a great therapeutic aid for the end of a busy day! Finish by patting dry the hands then apply a generous helping of Source Mineral Hand Cream, but try not to rub it all in until its absorbed. Instead, leave a little on the surface and allow the skin to take in the nourishing minerals that feed the skin with vital elements and create hydration. You’ll be amazed just how velvety-soft your hands feel.”

Disclaimer: this product was sent to me for review purposes, but it is something I have repeatedly purchased and have loved for years. All opinions are my own.

London IMATS 2011 - Time to Start a Low Buy (haul)

2011-02-01T21:25:00.002Z

If you're curious as to what I bought at IMATS, I've emptied my shopping bags here for your viewing pleasure. If you've got any questions or you'd like swatches or reviews of any of the goodies that I bought, please feel free to ask :) (I promise to be a good blogger and do it asap).

Inglot freedom palette, NYX glitter palette,

Sleek primer i-divine, Sleek bad girl i-divine, NYX Lake Moss trio,

Graftobian HD cream foundation palette (neutral 1), Le Maquillage mini cream palette.

Yaby brow cakes, Illamasqua cream shadows,

Inglot: Duraline, pigment, gel lipstick, matte lipstick, gel liners, lipgloss (click to fullsize to see the lipglosses!).

NYX: eyeshadow, round lipstick, round lipgloss, jumbo pencil,

Sleek pout polish electro Peach (back up- it's always oos),

OCC liptars and glitter, Eye Kandy liquid sugar and glitters.

Powder puffs, Kryolan setting powder, mixing palette, Beauty So Clean kit,

Hakuhodo brushes, Royal and Lagnickel (Crown) brushes

Inglot flakies!

If your curious about what sort of discounts are on offer-

Inglot was on sale for 30% off, but I don't think it was tbh. I paid £34 for my 10 piece round palette, is it normally £44.20? I emailed Inglot for a UK price list but haven't heard back yet. A lot of the really good discounts (generally 30%) were for people with a pro card and tbh I didn't want the hassle of convincing them to give me one, even though most of the sales assistants told me I should. The OCC liptars were 3 for £20, the Illamasqua cream shadows were in sets of 4 for £20. NYX was on special, most items 4 for £20 and the bigger sets were £10 each (like the glitter palette). I feel stupid really because I could have bought everything from Cherry Culture and still paid a lot less even with shipping! Would you seriously pay £20 for 4 NYX round lippies? Sleek had some good offers if you bought multiples, but I already have almost everything they sell, so I didn't take advantage of it. The Graftobian kit was £20, which was quite good and the Les Maquillage (Maqpro) was £18 I think, which was really good.

I'm really pleased with everything I bought, though I feel like that 30% discount on Inglot might not have been right and the NYX I feel like a total tool for buying, I bought it because it was the first time I'd seen it in person, I wasn't thinking at all about the fact it was still way overpriced! Time for a mini haul with Cherry Culture before the discount code finishes tonight!

London IMATS 2011 - Demos

2011-02-01T20:19:00.001Z

There were lot of artists working on models everywhere you turned. So inspiring to watch the creative process right infront of you!

I've done my best with these pictures, but I was being jostled a lot and I have the worlds most unsteady hands. I want you to be able to see everything and feel like you were there so I've included every picture, good and bad. I only wish I'd taken more.

Sea Monkey! Isn't that incredible?

this was from the 50s glamour presentation by the Edinburgh School of Media Make-up with the legendary Tina Earnshaw (titanic, shakspear In love and tons more others) and Rabecca Lafford (personal make-up artist to Cate Blanchett, Naomi Watts, Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon and Gwyneth Paltrow. She was the make-up designer on Proof, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and The Good Night). Tina is the course designer at the school and is also teaching there! My picture is pretty useless (I'm tiny and couldn't get a clear shot), but the demonstration was really inspiring and they went through the process step by step.

London IMATS 2011 - SFX Museum

2011-02-01T19:53:00.001Z

This was my first IMATS and to tell you the truth, I was pretty nervy to go as I was going solo. I hate going places alone, I totally shrink into myself and worry about everything. I really wanted to go though, so I took the plunge and I'm very glad I did!

There was so much to see and do! I bought a full day ticket for the Saturday so I could also see some of the speakers. I only made it to 2 of the lectures, but they were well worth it.

I'm splitting this into 3 separate posts: museum, demos and haul. I took so many photos and don't want to inundate you with all of them at once!

So here's all the photo's I took from the museum, I hope you enjoy them :)

p.s. everything is clickable to view full size to really bring out the amazing detail work.

NOTD Misa Quirky Smile

2010-12-05T17:06:00.001Z

A lovely sparkly jewel toned teal, perfect in 2 coats

Finally the store had some of the newer Misa's in! I managed to pick up a few from the last 2 collections and Quirky Smile was one of my favourites in the bottle. It's very deep and jewel like, perfect for winter.

I went clubbing on Friday, managed to lose my purse, misplace my friends and fall on my ass. Nothing new then heyho. I'm now without my Visa, so it's not so easy for me to shop atm and I need to take my passport to the bank to get cash out. It's not a huge problem but they are sending my new pin to my house, by now you should know that my postman totally sucks and seems to be stealing my mail, so I've no idea if it'll turn up or not.

I'm not sure that my pictures actually look any better with the new camera. I don't know if I'm using the wrong settings or just not keeping still enough, but they don't look much different to before and I spent a lot on this camera. I'll try and get a lamp with a daybulb and see if that helps. If anyone has any tips for me, please let me know. I just find it really hard to get the detail to show up when I'm photographing shimmer and glitter.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

I Got The Rockin' Winter Blues

2010-12-02T15:45:00.001Z

Ok, this title totally sucks, but I didn't know what to call a notd which also includes snow day pics and music videos!

Misa Pour Me Something Tall And Strong

I've seen so many people rave about this colour, but every pic I saw I wasn't keen. It looked patchy, faded and like it was going to be a total pita. I kept seeing it in the store but yesterday I finally decided to pick it up and see what all the fuss is about. To avoid vnl I did a couple of coats of Misa Eggshell Beige, though my ring finger went wrong when I tried to konad over it, so I tried that with 2 coats of Barielle Natural Nail Camouflage instead to see if it made any difference. It did help application, but I think you can see more vnl, though flash is always brutal for that.

I found this a bit of a nightmare tbh. It took forever to dry and I kept smudging it and trying to fix it with more coats, which ended up bubbling a bit. I mean, just look at this crappy, patchy, bubbled mess of a mani. I doubt I'll be in a hurry to try this mani again. In summer I'll probably give it a go, chuck a sparkly top coat over it and hope for the best.

Please overlook the abysmal picture quality, apparently low lighting means macro is useless, or maybe it's me, please let me know if there's a better way to take macro pics indoors without flash and get some vaguely decent photos!

This is a pretty colour accurate picture though! It's a deep neon blue, that will hopefully be less stressful as a pedi, because the colour is actually quite lovely. It looks nice from a normal distance, I wish I'd stamped a snowflake instead, how cute would that have been?!

It's not quite narnia........

but the view from my balcony was quite pretty when I woke up and saw we'd had snow overnight!

My camera has a snow setting which I am so glad I got to try out so soon, usually we don't get snow 'till late December and through January and February. I don't think these pics came out half bad!

Last Friday I went to see one of my favourite bands, Skunk Anansie! A lot of my readers seem to be into the heavier side of music, so I thought you guys might fancy checking them out. They were big in the UK during the 90s and had a number 1 with Hedonism (just because it feels good), but I have no idea how successful they've been outside of the UK. They got back together last year and this is the 2nd time I've been lucky enough to see them. The gig was in their home town at Brixton Academy which was pretty cool! Skin is an amazing woman, she puts so much energy into her performances and has a voice I'd kill for. Here are some of my favourite songs :)

Any other Skunk Anansie fans out there?

Not Exactly Happy/ AKA Eyeko's Shitty Customer Service

2010-11-30T14:07:00.004Z

If you hate ranty blogs posts then look away now, because I am pissed to be quite honest. Eyeko keep sending out facebook messages with really tempting offers that are available for something like 2 hours. They had a deal where you got a free liptastik with no minimum spend (I think) and they had just released sets of the fat balms. The Sweet Treats set had all the shades that I really wanted to order and I wanted the red liptastik anyway, So off I went and ordered it on the 12th of November, they shipped it out on the 15th. I had really wanted to get the Hot Lips Liptastik but it never seemed to be on the site. I facebooked Eyeko about this and they said it would be back in stock soon. On the 15th they messaged me saying it's back in stock, so I replied that I'd be ordering it then and there and I quickly did just that. About an hour later, Eyeko sent another round of messages on facebook, this time with a free fat balm with any order. If they'd held off on telling me about the Hot Lips being back in stock, or mentioned something when I said I was ordering it at that time, then I wouldn't have missed out. Wasn't too important though, I had 3 fat balms in the post and 2 liptastiks so I was happy regardless.

Flash forward to now, nearly 3 weeks after I placed my Fat Balm order. I'm sitting here with my one liptastik that came a few days after I ordered on the 15th, and no fat balms or free liptastik. Eyeko apparently don't give a shit, because I used their free postage and apparently they "highly recommend to opt for recorded delivery" despite advertising their free postage all over the site. I've asked them for the proof of postage so I can claim through Royal Mail myself, but they ignored that and basically repeated what they'd said in their previous email- I should have used recorded delivery, they aren't covered for loss, etc.

Well you know what? Fuck you. I could have burned my £13, atleast it would have given off some light and heat, whereas I have sent eyeko £13 and gotten ziltch for my efforts. I understand their policy (well it's shit, but they are covering their backs), but atleast give me a proof of postage and allow me the option to claim for myself. This has never happened with any company. If I don't receive something from someone or the item is damaged, the sender has always made good on it. Eyeko, your shoddy and slow emails are a disgrace, acheive nothing and have lost you a customer and someone who supported your brand. I like your products but now everytime I go to use my glow cream I am reminded of how annoyed I am.

Please guys, if you are going to shop with Eyeko, don't use their free delivery. If there are any problems with your order they'll do nothing but frustrate you. I want my effing fat balms but I'm not going to be sending them any more of my money.

On another note; I just had to fork out 300 quid for a new washing machine, because Kenyon, the people who renovated my kitchen, managed to break it but wont accept responsibility. There's no way to prove they did it, as the problem is internal and Hoover wanted £120 just to send someone to have a look, but it lasted years without a single problem. I miss my machine, it was lovely and reliable and hot fill. I just had my new one installed and I hate it. The programs take too long, it doesn't have the same settings, it's noisy and ofcourse it is cold fill only as they have all stopped making hot fill washing machines. I'm in mourning for my Hoover, she lasted me 8 years until the bad men touched her. They also dented the crap out of my brand new fridge, weeks later and I'm still waiting on their insurance!

We do have snow today though! It's been snowing since 6AM. It's not very heavy and it hasn't settled much, but it's still snow! I want heavy thick beautiful snow like in Feb '09, I want everywhere looking like Narnia!

Has anyone else had any problems with Eyeko? Everyone raves about them because they give away a lot of freebies and their products are fairly cheap and cute, but I've been left feeling ripped off.

Sleek Sparkle I-Divine Swatches!

2010-11-24T14:19:00.003Z

I got up early this morning, I actually set an alarm which is not my usual style. I didn't want a repeat of the sleek bad girl/good girl situation, where I went a day after it came out and every superdrug was out of stock already! I was welcomed by a fully stocked display, woot!

Can you spot what's wrong with this picture? There's only 11 colours! I'm such a tool, I forgot to swatch Festive! It's a more vibrant purple than Illusion. Illusion is slightly more grey and smokier than my swatch shows, whereas Festive is a bit more pink based.

All the shades , except for the silver, gold and black, are matte with glitter. All of them have what looks like silver glitter, though in a different light and if you look closely, it appears to be multi coloured pastel glitter. I'll refer to it as silver though, because that's what it generally seems to look like. The exception to this is Mistletoe, which has tiny subtle green glitter. The gold and silver are both pretty sheer, but could probably be built up or would be more vibrant over a matching cream base. I personally like them sheer and think they'll be a bit more wearable with the rest of the shades.

Cranberry: matte red based hot pink with silver glitter.

Dream Maker: matte lavender grey with silver glitter.

Galactic: matte deep teal with silver glitter

Twinkle: matte navy with silver glitter

Star Light: matte grey with silver glitter

Noir: matte pigmented black, the standard black in most Sleek palettes.

Illusion: matte smoky eggplant with silver glitter.

Festive: similar to Illusion but slightly lighter and more pink (not pictured because I suck).

Mistletoe: satiny forrest green with tiny green glitter.

Glitz & Glamour: slightly more satin than matte, black with silver glitter, slightly sheer too.

Gold Ribbon: shimmery smooth pale gold, slightly sheer.

Tinsel: shimmery smooth pale silver, pretty sheer.

Sleek Has Landed! NOTD Sleek Royalty

2010-11-24T13:32:00.003Z

My order from the 50% sale arrived yesterday! Now before you all start to wonder how the hell I managed to get my stuff so quickly, it's because I managed to hunt down their phone number with a bit of sluething and rung them up to get everything straightened out. What was taking people weeks to achieve through an email system, was sorted in a 5 minute phone conversation. Everything arrived in order and packaged really well, except I didn't get the bad girl palette, apparently I was order 204 (out of 5000!) and should have got it but a few people had ordered multiples which is why I didn't. They said they'll let me know if they get any cancelled or returned though, otherwise it wont be back instock until mid January. I ordered a ton of stuff (it took me 14 hours to complete my orders!), things that I just fancied checking out but didn't really want to pay full price for, like the sheer lipsticks, foundation, concealers and powders. They might be crap or I could have a reaction, so it made sense to get them at half off. There is far too much to put in 1 post, so I'm going to attempt to review everything separately in individual posts, it's going to take a while but I can give you a much better review of a product that way. So far I'm actually really liking it all and would really recommend Sleek as a whole. Their customer service has been really great (if you speak to them over the phone) and I've given everything a quick test and really liked it all!

I painted my nails with the shade Royalty yesterday. Please excuse the mess of my mani, about 2 hours after I had finished my nails, my boyfriend and I built a flat pack wardrobe. Considering the fact I used my hands a lot, almost straight after paining them, they held up pretty well with no noticeable chips and just a bit of tip wear. I've tested all the polishes out on a piece of paper and all of them were really pigmented and had decent brushes. I used 2 coats for this mani but you might be able to get away with one if you're careful. Sorry it's a bit dull, all the work yesterday didn't help, plus my Posche has gone a bit crap thanks to some dodgy nail decals that sort of leached into it.

Royalty is a deep shimmering wine shade

Have you tried Sleek's polishes before? More to the point, has your order come yet?

Product Rave- Lush Once A Year Massage Bar

2010-11-22T12:59:00.000Z

How cute is this?! I had slightly gone off Lush's massage bars because they weren't doing much for me, but I need to stock up on a few of these! It smells of slightly spiced bubblegum, but it's not actually too gourmand. It's got hazelnut oil in there, which produces an extra melty bar, so it's no work at all to get a nice amount of the oils onto your skin. That cute 'tache is so glittery! I like to use the base of the bar to massage into my skin like a lotion and then turn it over and lightly stroke the 'tache onto any areas where I want a bit of glitter, then I rub it all in. I love how I can chose to be sparkly or not sparkly and I can chose exactly how much glitter I want. The glitter sticks really well, I put some on before bed last night and I woke up with lots of sparkles still on my arms. It left my skin really soft and I only needed to use a tiny amount. The few seriously dry and flaky patches that I had on my chest from using Duac have cleared right up overnight! At £3.95 this is actually the cheapest massage bar Lush are currently selling (if you don't include the glitter bars). I wasn't overly impressed by this years holiday products, but this one has totally won my heart. It's limited edition, so run to your nearest Lush or ring mail order and pick up one before they run out.

Do You Take Biotin?

2010-11-19T11:57:00.000Z

I have the worlds worst nails, I swear. Not only do I get peelies, but I'm still dealing with this horrible onycholysis. So my nails aren't attached to my nail plate, they hurt and I'm absolutely terrified that one day I'll catch one on something and the whole thing will just rip off, it's only a matter of time. I always wanted to take biotin, but it costs a ton over here, so a lovely nber sent me some from the US. I had heard some people say it gave them acne, but a lot of people argued that it was the walmart own brand stuff and most likely the cheapo fillers were causing the dodgy skin. I've lived with acne since I was 11 years old, the only thing that has kept it under control was switching my contraception and using Duac gel every day. So I really really didn't want biotin to make my skin bad. I went slow, I took 1 tablet for a couple of weeks, then built up to 2 and then finally 3. It's been a good couple of months sine I started, I think and the peelies seem to have improved a bit and my nails might be growing a bit faster, but seriously my skin is a state. Not just my face, my back, chest and shoulders all have regressed over a decade and are itchy, spotty and red. Um no thanks. I am sick of having to put make up on my chest every day so it doesn't look like a pizza. Goodbye Biotin, it was a nice experiment whilst it lasted but I'd take clear skin over ever-so-slightly-improved nails any day. Plus, I never thought I'd say this, but I kind of need my nails to stay nubbin sized atm, so growing faster isn't much of a help.

Have you tried biotin before? What was your experience with it like?

As soon as the new year has come, I'm chopping off my nails again, back to all those funny angles and hideousness so I can cut away all the lifted parts. I don't want to, but they hurt and I need to get this problem fixed. I just wish my nails would re-attach :(

On a jollier note, who is seeing Deathly Hallows? I can't wait! We're going for dinner and a movie tonight and I'm quite excited, proper date night (even if it is to see Harry Potter lol). Now I need to decide what to wear!

Have a great weekend everyone! xx

Evil Shades Review & Swatches!

2010-11-15T18:50:00.002Z

By now, pretty much all of the blogging world has heard of Evil Shades, the make up company created by the lovely Andrea of Black Nail Polish And Lipgloss. I'd seen some awesome swatches and reviews and decided now was the time to get some goodies to try for myself. I ordered the winks and Kisses set of 3 eyeshadows and 2 deviant lipsticks, plus a blush, the new eye primer, a liquid sin lipgloss and a halloween set of a cool franken polish Andrea had created and a liquid sin lipgloss, all made specially for halloween. Everything was shipped fast and packaged securely in cute tissue paper.

Enough dallying, onto the swatches!

As always, click on any of the pics to enlarge them.

Haunting nail polish

Colour descriptions/opinions:

Valkyries- a pretty warmish baby pink with lovely sparkles that my camera refused to pick up. Personally it's just a bit too pink for me to use as a highlight, but I love pinks so I'll probably use it on the lid or inner corner with some other shades.
Heartless Queen - a true vivid matte red. There are some sparkles but they are barely there in my jar.
Nymphette - A metallic sparkly blue. The evil shades pic is very bright and vivid, mine looks nothing like it.
Zombie Kiss Liquid Sin - a deep plum colour, thankfully not too brown, with sparkle, opaque and thick.
Carna Liquid Sin - A bright red with gold sparkles. The sparkles don't show up much though and the gloss itself is fairly sheer, Carna is a lot thinner than Zombie Kiss.
Stiletto Deviant Lipstick - really opaque and gorgeous hot pink with a slight blue shift. It's not frosty at all and has no noticeable shimmer.
Reign Deviant Lipstick (now discontinued) - My tube was damaged and wont twist up, so I used a cotton bud to take out a chunk and try to swatch it. It's a very sheer nude, I've tried the same method for swatching it on my lips and I couldn't really see any colour. Andrea is sending me another tube to replace my damaged one, so hopefully that'll be better, but I can see why it's being discontinued as there are lots of different looking swatches floating about. Apparently this shade just refused to remain consistent.
Diabolical Deviant Lipstick (free sample) - coppery metallic red, a bit too much copper and not enough red for my taste, making it lean fairly orange. I wish it looked like the online picture as I'd love a true metallic red.
Primrose Path Deviant lipstick (free sample) - This is fairly similar to Valkyries actually. It's a light to medium coral pink with subtle green sparkles. It's a bit too frosty for me though and I'm not sure what look to pair it with.
Gossamer Blush - this is frickin' gorgeous! A blue toned baby pink with loads of sparkles that creates a gorgeous blue shift.
Haunting nail polish- A light grey with small round iridescent glitter. I'm incapable of holding my hands steady, the glitter is small and regular- not how it looks in my sucky colour drop.
Evileye Primer - This feels lovely but just doesn't work for me sadly. I had a hard time getting Heartless Queen to swatch over it. I actually had to remove it and use a dab of primer potion for the swatch you see here (Nymphette and Valyries are swatched over Evileyes Primer though and they came out fine). I wore it underneath some shadows the other day and had terrible creasing within a few hours. I've tried it on my forehead though and it worked quite nicely as a face primer, so it's not gone to waste.

Thoughts:

As when buying all cosmetics online, you need to check out a variety of swatches to get an idea of the colour. Monitors vary and you wont always end up with what you think you will. The eyeshadows are all nice and blend well. If Andrea brings out a nail polish, buy it, I doubt you'll have any regrets and this lady knows her polish! The liquid sin glosses are nice, but I'd prefer them with a slight scent (cherry would be my preference if you're curious), they smelled a bit cheap to me tbh, but nothing terrible. Also, the textures varied a lot with the 2 glosses I bought, so you wont know what it's like until you get it. The Deviant lipsticks are amazing, fabulous creamy texture and Stiletto had excellent colour pay off, I'm guessing you'll get better pay off out of a tube then from the sample pots, which was my experience. If you buy one thing from Evil Shades, make it the Gossamer blush, which is fantastic, unique and so so pretty! I'll try the primer in black next time and see if it's any different. Evil Shades is an interesting new company, run by a fab lady, with excellent customer service (Andrea replied to all of my emails regarding my order at lightening speed). Everything on the site is very affordable, in the UK we don't even get drugstore make up at those kind of prices, so buy a few different things, get some samples and have a play.

What are your favourite things from Evil Shades? Anything I should try next? If you'd like to see any of the lip shades on the lips, just give me a shout in the comments :)

OPI DS Swatches

2010-11-10T20:06:00.001Z

This was a reader request from Jenny$1983. I was worried I'd struggle taking these as it's been dark and gloomy in London recently. How lucky was I that the sun was shining today?! I've done my best with these swatches and will give descriptions to help you get a better idea. I'm still getting used to the camera, playing with the shutter speeds and ISO settings to try to get the best pics. I'm sure my camera could take better pics than these, but they are way better than anything the old camera could do. Fingers crossed, I'll get better with it as I keep taking more pics. Everything has been left huge, so click on them for a bigger picture.

DS Couture

This is a lovely coral and it's a bit more pink than my picture shows, 2 coats.

DS Sapphire

The sun really washed this one out, it's closer to the colour of my thumb, a vivid baby blue. This was 3 coats as it was one of the more sheer of the bunch.

DS Chiffon

A warm baby pink, 2 coats.

DS Elegance

A cool toned baby pink, 2 coats

Chiffon on pinky, middle and thumb, Elegance on ring and index.

DS Shimmer

Index, 1 coat over black, ring 2 coats over black, 3 coats on pinky, middle and thumb. Indoors this looks rubbish. I once wore it on it's own as a full mani with 5 coats and still wasn't hugely happy. It's best for layering imo.

Sensation

This is the only non holo DS that I own and it is gorgeous!

A vibrant hot pink with orange undertones and loads of shimmer (possibly glass fleck? I suck at the differences with shimmer), 2 coats on ring, pinky and thumb, 3 coats on middle and index. Indoors I could really see the vnl so I did 3 coats on 2 fingers to see if it made a difference. It covered the vnl better but the colour still looked the same.

DS Divine

Sadly the sun was setting at this point, at quarter to 4 in the afternoon wah! The lovely dusky evening sun sadly made everything look way too warm in every single one of the 20 or so pictures I took of this. It's actually a really vivid rose colour, sort of blue toned but it looks more neutral tbh. It's gorgeous and the deepest of all the DS holos I own <3 I'm wearing this as a full mani, 2 coats with a bit of fauxnad on my ring fingers. I placed the stars a bit poorly, but it looks ok.

I'll be honest, despite the fact I love the DS shades, they look shit indoors. They look dull and crappy and horrid, but once you get them out into the sun it's BAM in-your-face holo goodness! They all go on lovely, I never have any application issues and they are full of smooth scattered holo.

What are your favourite DS shades? Jenny, have any of these convinced you to get some?

Sleek Sale Update!

2010-11-10T15:32:00.000Z

This is going to be a really quick post, I know I've got comments to read and reply to and I've been swatching for you all day before I dash out into town. I just wanted to link you to the details of the tomorrows Sleek sale, as they have updated on facebook. Here's a link to their note with all the details :) gutted Electro Peach Pout Polish and the Sunset palette are oos, I wanted those for my mum! Buttt, they are bringing out the brush set and a special deal for 10 eye dusts for £10, I'm guessing they will be £5 for the sale then, which is fricking amazing! Don't forget, they ship to a lot of countries, I know most of my readers are international, but don't worry, you've not been left out :)

BF-Beauty.com Tailor Made Eyeshadow Compacts Swatches!

2010-11-09T20:47:00.001Z

About 6 weeks ago, the lovely Heather from Eyeconic Makeup wrote this review about the tailor made eyeshadow compacts from Beauty Factory. Her swatches looked great and I loved the idea of creating my own palette so I hopped over to the site and bought one. Originally I made up a 10 piece palette, but there was a bit of a problem.

Whatever you do, please don't buy this case, or any of the others which have the same opening mechanism. It is virtually impossible to open as you have to press down in the centre to get the other part to loosen. well I pressed and pressed and eventually smashed the mirror inside, whoops. So I bought a nice 15 piece palette and 5 more shadows. This one opens nicely, so no more smashy smashy.

Click to enlarge :) Are you proud? I've finally learnt how to add text to pictures!

The colours are so pretty and blend really nicely. I love that the site tells you what finish each shade is, that way I managed to avoid too much shimmer overload, I've got Aromaleigh and Fyrinnae for that. I swatched these using a foam applicator, but they go on the eye very nicely using a brush. Apart from Herbal, which felt a bit gritty, the shadows are all really smooth to the touch. They aren't too soft like those 88 palette shadows, which is nice but means you sometimes have to layer up to get a really vivid effect. The matte and light pearlised finishes are my favourites, really smooth and look great.

Btw, I think the one I labelled as Retro is actually Charcoal. I ordered Retro and it came with the correct product number on it, but Retro is supposed to be a matte grey and the one I have is sparkly black. I love it though, so I'm not complaining.

My favourite colours other than Retro/Charcoal:

Undeveloped is a one of their duo colours, it's so pretty! One side is a shimmery pale gold highlight and the other is a bright shimmery lime green.
Rich Red is a gorgeous red with a slight satin finish and it's smooth as buttah!
Vanilla is a pearlised white gold that will look lovely as a subtle eye with strong liner.
Sake is all I hoped it would be, a beautiful shimmering light nude highlight.
Prune is a really bright matte hot pink

I've now received 3 orders from Beauty Factory, they all arrived quickly, in under 2 weeks (this order came in 9 days!) and have been really well packaged and covered in bubble wrap, nothing has turned up damaged. They are easy to order from and operate a rewards scheme where you get points on each item you buy that you can them redeem off your next purchase. There's no minimum order, you can buy just one eyeshadow if you'd like to try the quality before ordering a full palette. Shipping is almost free, on a 15 piece palette and 15 single eyeshadows the shipping to the UK is $0.90, mad! A full 15 piece palette, including shadows and palette will cost you $33.99 plus the measly shipping. That's great value and would be a great idea to make up a palette for travel. Oh yeah and the shadows are huge too, I think they are the same size as Stilla. They also sell image stamping plates, for $2 each! AND they have one with Hello Kitty on it!! I just ordered that today, along with 5 other plates and a pack of stamping polish, no idea if it will be any better than just using normal nail polish, but it's worth a go. Customer service is good too, I once accidentally ordered the same shadow twice, I emailed them and they sorted it straight away so I could have a different one.

Thank you Heather for introducing me to this site and their pretty awesome products.

Check it out and let me know what you think :)

Sleek Sale On Thursday!

2010-11-09T15:27:00.002Z

Not certain of the exact times yet, so keep an eye on their twitter or facebook page. Everything at Sleek is going to be at 50% off for one day only, plus they are releasing new tools too (come on brush set!). They ship worldwide and have some awesome products at great prices- which will be even cheaper, insane! They are famous for their i-divine palettes, packing 12 shades of pigmented eyeshadow into one lovely palette, but they do make some other really nice stuff.

Check out:
Kajal liners
Pout Polish - I frickin' love these and have every colour! Electro Peach and Pink Cadillac ftw
Blush - Rose Gold is lovely and said to be a dupe to Nars Orgasm
Eye Dust - lots of pretty colours to chose from
Nail Polish - I've not tried these yet but now is a perfect time to get a few shades
High Shine Lip Gloss - Another product I've yet to try out, but check out Imogen Foxy Locks Review, want!

What are you planning to pick up during the sale? I must admit, I'm planning to haul like a madwoman. I'm hoping to pick up the new i-divines, Kajal Liners, Lip Pencils, Pout Polish back ups, pink blushes, face powder, some polishes, lip glosses and hopefully some brushes! Plus I'm going to get a few bits for the fabulous women in my life to give as Xmas gifts.

The Make Up Store Has Come To The UK!

2010-11-08T17:51:00.001Z

Whilst on my way to the Mac Pro store in Carnaby Street a couple of weeks ago, I passed an interesting looking place called Make Up Store which was almost next door Mac and I got all confused thinking it was the Mac store and just looked a bit odd. I then saw Mac a couple of doors down and thought I'd pop in to the other place on the way back and I'm glad I did! The guy running the store was super helpful and we had a great chat about the brand. It's a Swedish company, though all the products say they are made in Canada, and I vaguely remember looking at the site a few years ago, but being in Swedish made it a tad difficult for me. Now they have a UK site, it seems you can't shop online though and there are no shade descriptions, but lots of great pictures. The store itself was spacious, beautifully laid out, really tidy, clean and organised, with every single product laid out nicely in front of it's boxed counterparts, so you could test out the shades. I had just spent a ton in Mac so I only allowed myself the 3 purchases in the picture above.

From L to R: lipsticks in Senorita & Sirocco and High Tech Lighter in Pandora

Senorita is a fab hot pink that leans slightly warm but has a blue sheen which manages to neutral it out a bit, gorgeous! I really love this shade and despite owning a fair few similar colours, nothing quite dupes it. I will do a hot pink lippie swatch post at some point so you can see what I mean.

Sirocco is a really unique colour, it's a brown based mlbb colours absolutely packed full with a rainbow of tiny pastel glitter. That's sparkle on my lips, not gloss, it's actually a satin texture but there is just so much sparkly goodness!

It's versatile too. This is it applied sheerly, it just gives a lovely shimmer. I wish you could see the true effect of this shade. What's with these craptastic lipstick swatches? Come on new camera, please play nice for me, gah I need sunlight!

This is the high Tech Lighter in Pandora. I was so drawn to this in the store, as the colour is so unique and so is the product! It's a warm hot pink with slight orange undertones and teeny pink glitter. It's a creamy, waxy, multi use product that can be applied anywhere. I'll use this on my cheekbones, on the centre of my lip and around my eyes as a base to stick glitter.

Here it is applied really thinly and the photo is taken without flash so you can see the tiny pink glitter.

The lipsticks were £12.50 each and the High Tech Lighter was £15. All the products are very creamy and go on lovely. The lippies feel very smooth, even the uber glittery Sirocco. The high tech lighter does contain Bismuth Oxychloride, which I know some people are sensitive too, but it is very low down on the ingredients list and this isn't a product that you'd probably use frequently or all over. The packaging seems a bit cheap to me, the lipsticks are ok but the high tech lighter didn't come in a box which I found odd and it feels a bit clunky with it's screw top plastic lid, which is plastered with the brand logo engraved into it. It's ok, not hideous or anything, but for the money I'd expect something a tad nicer. Now that I think of it, it all sort of reminds me of the Sephora packaging, not that I've seen it since we lost Sephora in the UK a few years ago!

They also had a great selection of polishes and holos! I skipped them at the time, because it was all pale holos and I have quite a few OPI DS ones that I thought might be dupes, plus they are £11 each which ain't cheap! I'm kind of regretting that now after seeing a few swatches online, as they do look rather lovely, so I might have to try at least 1 and see for myself. They also had the most amazing selection of glitter, loose gems and sparkly eye dusts.

If you're ever in London, pop in and have a look. It's quiet because everyone is next door in Mac, plus you don't get hounded by staff. It's also easy to shop as everything is on the shelves; I frickin' hate having to get a Mac sales assistant to find all my items for me and literally have to shop along with me. The store had a really calming environment and was such a nice change after leaving the hideous chaos that was the Mac Pro store, which is tiny and literally crammed with people.

Have you tried anything by Make Up Store, what did you think of it? Anything I should check out the next time I go?

FOTD Using Mainly Aromaleigh & Mac Fun Bathing

2010-11-07T18:17:00.002Z

Please let me know what you think of this guys. All CC is welcome and any picture taking hints or criticism is hugely appreciated. I can't tell if this camera is any good and for what I spent, it really should be!

All pics were taken indoors, using flash, fiddling with the camera settings and hoping for the best!

Eyes: All shadows are Aromaleigh unless otherwise stated

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Pixie Epoxy on lid, lower lashline and slightly on the crease

Wonderstruck Drink Me on inner lid

Spells! Crucio on outer lid and outer lower lashline

Spells! Incendio on lid and middle of lower lashline

Mythos Zeus over Drink Me and blended into Incendio
Mythos Eos on crease
Wonderstuck Pass The Tarts on outer crease
Evil Shades Mythology Collection Valkyries to blend out crease
Valentine 09 Pillow Talk to highlight under the brow arch & on inner lower lashline
Mac Gesso to lightly highlight around brows and inner browbone
Benefit Babe cake liner in Sophia on upper lashline
Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Zero on the waterline and to tightline
Victoria Secrets Very Sexy High Definition Mascara in Blackest Black

Brows:
Random old Shiseido charcoal shadow

Blush:
Rocks! Sonic Rouge in Firewoman

Face:

L'Oreal Infallible concealer in 02 Porcelain
Miss Sporty So Clear pressed powder in translucent
Urban Decay 24/7 liner in Zero to lightly define beauty spot

Lips:
Mac Fun Bathing

Wow that sounds like a lot of products, but all I actually missed out of the product photo was the Shiseido shadow, Mac Gesso and Firewoman blush.

I hope you like it!

Note to self: must buy tripod for self portraits!

My First Ever Konad, Using Misa!

2010-11-07T13:08:00.001Z

So much to tell and show you guys and now I have a snazzy new camera to show you everything with! I'm still figuring it out, so please bare with me. These pictures came out a bit strange, think I altered the shutter speed too much maybe, but they are tons better than anything my old camera would ever take!

I won Painted Lady Fingers awesome halloween giveaway (thanks so much Diana!). I won a beautiful painting that's going to look fab in my bathroom, my first BB Couture's which are on their way to me and my first ever Konad plates! Of course I had to try it out right away, despite spending all of yesterday with a rotten hangover and lying prone on the couch for most of the day.

I used plate M79 and stamped with Misa I Will Survive, I'm debating if konad special polish in black would be a good investment. These pics don't really make the black of I Will Survive look very black, though that could be my camera settings and the fact that my base polish is pretty dark anyway. I used 2 coats of Misa Cherry Topping, despite lemming it for ages, it has been sitting in my untrieds for quite a while. It's much darker than I expected, all pictures I've seen of this make it look light and bright- sort of tomato-y, but irl it's a proper cherry red and very pretty.

This is pretty colour accurate, hurrah!

I hope you're all having a great weekend! I've got band practise today, but tomorrow I'll go into a picture taking frenzy and try to get some posts ready for you guys. I've got lots of cool stuff that I've been saving until I got a new camera.

P.S. completely random and off topic, but Starbucks have all the seasonal flavours in finally! If you're a gingerbread latte addict like me, rush to buy the syrup as it sells out fast! I got 3 bottles, plus 2 of toffee nut latte, which I'm currently sipping, yum! Give the eggnog latte a go- the syrup isn't available to buy but the drink is delish!

The Daily Polish Is Having An Awesome Giveaway!

2010-11-01T11:53:00.000Z

The lovely Sara of The Daily Polish is having a huge giveaway to celebrate 1 year of daily polish changes! The prizes are amazing and you've still got plenty of time to enter. Check it out here and good luck to all who enter! :)

Sorry I'm slow with blogging atm, I'm getting frustrated with my camera and need a new one. All recomendations welcome! Plus I think it might be time to sort out a lightbox and get this blog rolling!

Halloween love and smooches! What was your halloween mani? I ended up just wearing Gosh Rainbow over black as I was pushed for time. I wish I had some pics, my costume was amazing (though quite uncomfortable, I struggled to sit on the sofa in my corset and one of the bones kept popping out- plus I had to take angel wings on a long coach journey!), but I think my boyfriend was more interested in taking pics of all the amazing decorations. If he ever uploads them from his phone I will share :)

Beauty Bargains In Primark! Dupe Alert!

2010-10-14T14:09:00.002+01:00

Warning: everything you see here cost only £2, therefore you must brave the hell that is Primark and run out and buy them!

I've shown you Primark make up before, it was pretty good and so I got a few more goodies this week.

Intellilips and Gilt special edition nail polish

Intellilips is just like Too Faced Mood Swing gloss! It's in a funky Lichtenstein inspired tube and has a brush applicator. The tube is kind of crappy plastic, a bit too soft and bendy and I'd be careful putting this in my handbag incase it randomly exploded or something , but for £2 it's a great way to try those colour changing glosses. I love sheer hot pink lips and this really was a winner.

without flash the polish looks oddly blue. This wasn't the camera, it really looks like this in my weird lighting, but I assure you it goes on black like this

black (maybe with a teeny hint of navy) with gold and multi tonal glitter- I def saw flashes of pink and teal in this last night. I swatched this on my ring finger last night, straight over the Eyeko Rain and it was almost perfect in 1 coat! The coolest thing about this polish? The packaging says it glows in UV! Sadly I don't get to go clubbing as much as I used to, my boyfriend is not a fan, but back in the day I would paint UV reactive stuff all over myself, wear a ton of UV beads all up my arms and around my neck and wear flashing t shirts lol. You can pretty much bet that if something is UV reactive I will love it!

ETA: I finally got a better look at this polish in natural light, it's base is blue black and the gold glitter is small irregular shapes/flecks and there is also teeny tiny multi coloured glitter. It's very unique!

Now for probably my favourite bargain, drumroll please maestro.....

they are all named, which I love, sorry it's hard to read- blame my shittastic pictures taking skills and camera.

This is awesome! Creamy glitter, that actually isn't too greasy surprisingly enough! I love that they are in a base so they'll adhere well and not end up all over the place and because it's not too greasy, I think it will easily go over eyeshadow or be nice patted over lippie. The colours are true to life and the glitter is fine and in some interesting colours, also the packaging is dead cute!

I also picked up a black liner with gold glitter that I totally forgot about until now. I think it was either £1 or £2 and it's actually really nice.

Who's rushing out to Primark for cheap beauty thrills?

NOTD Eyeko Rain

2010-10-12T16:02:00.001+01:00

This is lovely, really vivid and yet quite chic on my nubbins. It's a light to medium blue based grey creme with hidden shimmer. 2 fairly thick coats topped with a coat of my new Poshe.

Is it just me are all the brushes on Poshe dodgy? The top coat was splayed and sticking out on one side and the antimicrobial basecoat was even worse. I tried evening it up but all the bristles came out and wouldn't go back in so I had to use the brush from another polish bottle.

Unfortunately there was a load of shimmer stuck to the brush, which I didn't see and now my basecoat has a load of golden shimmer mixed in. It's not so bad, I pretty much always wear totally opaque polish so the shimmer wont show through, but still! Really annoying when you're looking forward to trying a product.

2 different bottles from the same brand, both with the same problem, seems just odd to me, but nowhere have I seen anyone mention that their brushes are dodgy.

Anyone else had problems with the brushes on Poshe?

Fyrinnae Swatches!

2010-10-11T18:26:00.001+01:00

As promised, swatches of my first Fyrinnae order. I placed my second at 4:30AM on Sunday morning, Glad I did as I've just seen an update on the site saying checkout is closed until November 16th. I also placed an order for Evil Shades, all those swatches I've been seeing online have been far too tempting! I'm dying to see what the new eye primer is like, primer potion is over priced and that stupid tube is annoying, so fingers crossed it'll be a good replacement, you just know Andrea would have come up with something amazing.

Anyway, here's my craptastic-as-usual swatches, everything is swatched over a teenie bit of Pixie Epoxy.

In the shade, Equality and Dinosaur Plushie in an attempt to show you the difference. both are lovely but Equality has a pale taupe base and Dinosaur Plushie is silver with a lot more sparkly holo effect.

These are all stunning and I am so glad that I finally got Pixie Epoxy!

Awesome Weekend Haulage And Post!

2010-10-09T19:16:00.000+01:00

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I'm having problems with my mail. I think my postman is stealing from me, around 5 packages in the last few months have never turned up. I told the post office, but they haven't gotten back to me and don't seem to care. A PO Box costs £95 a year and to be quite honest, why should I have to pay that money just because Royal Mail can't be trusted to deliver my post? So I've been having all of my packages sent to my mothers office and she brings them round to me every few weeks. Today Mum came round for lunch and to supposedly measure up my windows for curtains, but we forgot. She also brought round some packages! My LOL candles order which is already packed away so I didn't get any pics of it, my Aromaleigh order which a wonderful nber ordered on my behalf and a swap package.

Great swap package of treatments and a lovely extra, WNW Eggplant Frost

Aromaleigh goodies! I need one more order and a vault order and then I'm all done. I need someone to order for me though, boo to no international shipping!

I risked having my Fyrinnae order sent to my house and luckily it made it here! I ordered it on the 21st September and it got here on the 7th October, just 16 days to the UK woohoo! Great going guys! I decided I needed Pixie Epoxy in my life, especially after ordering all that sparkly goodness from Aromaleigh. Seeing as I was ordering that, I thought I really should get a few other bits as well. So glad I did, I absolutely love everything I ordered and I'm going to place another order again soon. Also, those mini sizes are huge for just $2!

Aromaleigh and Fyrinnae swatches coming soon, when and if the sun comes out!

Today I did a bit of shopping and finally caved and picked up some of my polish lemmings.

Totally craptastic picture of OPI Merry Midnight (!), No7 Totally Teal and Betty Blues and Barry M Nail Effects (black crackle polish)

New Sleek Pout Polish in Powder Pink. I love the Pout Polishes and this one is gorgeous.

I went into Sports Direct, one of my favourite shops for clothing basics, jeans and shoes, and I bought these goodies

Really cute and comfy pewter ballet pumps (I live in ballet pumps) and the most darling leopard print slippers in ballet pump style. I put the slippers on the second I got home and took them off to take the pics, then put them straight back on again, these are never coming off my feet!

New headphones! Because I have a tragus piercing and those damn ear bud things are forever falling out of my ears!

What goodies have you got this week?

Hope you're all having a fab weekend! xx

Do You Shop At BBW Online? Would You Like A Voucher?

2010-10-09T11:09:00.001+01:00

My nan just got back from Vegas with some awesome BBW goodies for me (I love their body sprays and lip glosses). They gave her a voucher which gives you as free body care item of your choice of up to $13 value, with any purchase of $10. It's valid in stores and online, so I thought maybe someone would like to use it online and save me shipping it out. It's only valid until the end of this month so let me know quickly and whoever leaves a comment here first can have it, just leave your email address :) Feel free to ask, even if you're not a regular commenter, it'd be a shame for this to go to waste.

Have you smelled Secret Wonderland yet? My nan brought me back the new minis and they are lovely! I love the artwork on the label for the lotion and the body spray smells lush and is in the handiest size! I wish I had the Twilight Woods mini spray as that's another scent I surprisingly loved.

My mum is on her way over now for a girly day and she's bringing post with her, a great swap, my LOL Candles order and my Aromaleigh order. I need more Aromaleigh, more things have been added to the site since my friend placed my order and she's unable to place another one now. If anyone could help me out and tag me onto their order I would be hugely grateful.

Have a great weekend guys!

xx

More Fun With China Glaze Glitters Over Eyeko Petite

2010-10-08T21:50:00.001+01:00

It worked it worked! I'm so pleased! All those polishes that I'd been lemming for ages and were a total pita are no longer going on the swap pile. I wore ChG Sunshine as a full mani a couple months ago, but it took 4 painful coats and looked so thick! 2 coats over 2 of Eyeko Petite and it was perfect, I know it's the same amount of coats of polish still, but the Eyeko dried so quickly and goes on very easily so it was much quicker than before and looks so much better.

I've been wearing this mani for 3 days now and only my left thumb has any signs of wear. Loving this! this combo looks so springy, I'd love to use Sour Apple and a couple of others and have a pastel glitter skittles mani for Easter. Are there any other pastel jellies with the small iridescent glitter? Carnival Lights has silver glitter and holo hex, so it's totally wrong for this and I'm thinking Bad Kitty and Dreamsicle are going to be too bright, hhm.

check out how much is missing in that bottle after only 1 previous mani!

When my nails are longer and I actually have a smile line to give vnl, I'll try out Petite under some neons and see if it really is the miracle polish it seems to be. So far I am loving it, it's saving all those pesky polishes that seemed too sheer and hard to work with. I need a back up, it is a great problem solver and at £3.50 you can't go wrong. Buy it here, you wont be sorry :) Oh and use my ambassador code E6388 if you like and Eyeko will send a surprise gift with your order- and I will feel the joy of knowing that someone has read my blog and liked what they saw :)

Sunshine is a vivid yellow jelly, the colour of waxy lemons, filled with small iridescent glitter. It's a surprisingly easy to wear shade that just oozes summer joy.

Electric lilac is a lilac jelly, a colour that reminds me of grape flavoured sweeties. Like Sunshine, this is filled with the same small iridescent glitter.

2 coats of each over 2 of Eyeko Petite polish, topped off with 1 coat of Misa Breakneck top coat.

Do you have any miracle polishes of your own that seem to fix problem child's like these?

I promise to stop plugging the Eyeko Petite Polish, I do kind of hate it when bloggers start sounding like walking advertisements. This is my honest opinion of a product I disliked at first and I am so pleased to have found such a great use for it that I really just want to share. I think I might buy one for a giveaway soon :)

Sleek Shimmer Blush Swatches

2010-10-06T14:14:00.002+01:00

I love a nice shimmery blush and I had been wanting to try something a bit peachier recently, so I was so happy when I managed to win these in one of Sleek's famous Face Book comps.

Rose Gold, Sunrise, Pomegranate

(all swatches in the same order)

The packaging is nice, like a mini version of their i-divine palettes and, although it's hard to tell in my picture, the mirror is pretty good. No crappy mini brush here either, which I like. I will say, the main bad point of all of these blushes is I struggle to open to damn things. Every time I try I end up with a sore thumb and half the time I resort to using my teeth. I don't know why and maybe it's just me, because I seem to struggle with lighters too and I can't open anything truth be told. Still, I've never had this much of a problem opening any item of make up.

The shades are lovely. They don't have chunky glitter and have almost a duo chrome quality. They are very pigmented so only a light hand is needed.

Rose Gold is a pinky peach with gold shimmer. It's been said to be similar to Nars Orgasm, though I've not seen comparison swatches yet. This one is my favourite and the most wearable for pale skinned girls.

Sunrise is a tawny plum with gold shimmer. It reminds me a bit of Benefit's Dallas actually. i think this would look lovely on all skin tones, depending on how it is applied.

Pomegranate- The deepest and most pigmented of the 3, even though they are all very pigmented. this is a raspberry shade with pink shimmer. If applied extremely lightly, this would look nice on pale girls, but I think it would look amazing on dark skin.

Are you lemming any of the new Sleek blushes? Which ones appeal to you?

Sleek blushes are available here, priced at £3.99.

NOTD China Glaze Carnival Lights Over Eyeko Petite

2010-10-05T16:21:00.002+01:00

I picked up Eyeko Petite at the event on Saturday, sadly the rain on the journey home managed to destroy the label (and soak pretty much everything I had on me at the time). Last night I was getting depressed about my onycholysis again and decided to chop down all my nails. I hate really short nails on me, they make my tiny hands look stumpy and chubby, but the length was putting too much pressure on the damaged nails, even though they were really short anyway. I've also just started taking biotin, in an attempt to do some good to my poor nails. The onycholysis hasn't improved one bit and my nails had managed to stain a rather unfetching orange colour- no idea which polish was the culprit. I've been reading up on Salon Geek and think I'm going to get me some solar oil, as most of the pros there seem to swear by it.

Anyhoo, I didn't exactly have high hopes for Petite, which is a milky sheer pink jelly with no shimmer. Firstly, sheers don't like me because I have staining and the worlds crappest smile line thanks to the onycholysis. Secondly, I'm more of an in-your-face uber bright neon or glitter girl. I did a bit of gentle buffing last night to try and remove some of the staining and wasn't planning on painting on more than a clear, but I thought I'd check out the Petite Polish and see if "Just one coat gives nails a pretty pink lustre" as the Eyeko site says. If you have perfectly gorgeous nails with no staining and you're good at applying sheer polishes, without making a streaky mess, then this probably would be lovely on you. I had to do 2 coats and it was still a bit patchy, particularly on my thumbs. It was ok tbh, the totally uneven smile line and dodgy nail lifting wasn't overly visible, but I looked at it and realised it wasn't me, did not make me happy and I'd probably stick it in my swap box. Then I had a thought, I wondered if it would make a good neutral base to layer over.

2 coats of Eyeko Petite Polish, 1 coat of Misa Breakneck fast dry top coat, 2 coats China Glaze Carnival Lights, 1 coat Misa Breakneck top coat

A couple of lovely nber's cp'd me some China Glaze glitters from the US, but I'd had problems with all of them. They all had the texture of glitter glue and, even after 4 coats, I still had visible nail line!

Problem solved!

(Do you like my new kitchen work tops? I just had my kitchen renovated 2 weeks ago)

The china glaze went on so smoothly and lovely. It didn't leave a wonky glittery rough edge like before and, despite no longer even having a visible nail line after my clipping and filing frenzy, the onycholysis patches are hidden perfectly.

It's still a glitterbomb, but the base colour comes through nicely with just the 2 coats. Carnival lights has a dusky rose jelly base, with tiny round silver glitter and medium holo hex glitter.

I can't wait to try Eyeko Petite Polish under all my other China Glaze glitters. I'm dying to see if Sunshine works over it and I wonder if it'll help perk up all those neons I have and get rid of the vnl.

Everyone seems to rave about those China Glaze glitters, am I the only one who has problems with them? have you tried Eyeko Petite polish yet, what did you think? What's your favourite base to layer sheer glitters over?

Please pray to the polish gods that my nails start to heal and reattach soon.

Eyeko 10th Birthday Party & New Products!

2010-10-03T16:12:00.000+01:00

Warning, this post is probably going to be pretty long, there's a ton of new products to show you and loads of pictures! As always, all pics can be enlarged by clicking :)

It was a cold and rainy Saturday evening in London when a group of beauty bloggers and make up fans met up in the back room of the fabulous Wenlock and Essex pub in Angel to celebrate the 10th anniversary of funky London make up brand Eyeko. I've been using the Eyeko cream since it's release ten years ago. It was originally sold in Sephora for £10 a jar, these days you can get it in Superdrug for about £7 I think, or from their website with free shipping. They are always doing deals and give away freebies and extras with all of their orders.

Last night we had delicious cupcakes provided by Lola's and canapes provided by one of my favourite eateries The Diner. The bar had provided a selection of special cocktails just for the occasion. I spent most of the evening drinking the tasty Eyeko London Lips Martini.

Yummy!

They were doing make overs and manicures, product demonstrations and even had a tarot reader! Blondie was being blasted on the funky multi-coloured light up dance floor and there was a competition to draw tattoos on each other using the graffiti eyeliners. Lots to see and do and a ton of products to play with.

Products and sweeties were placed on literally every available surface for us to play with

They had the new fat balms! These are gorgeous, my favourite was frosting, a lovely pigmented bright pink

They're bringing out duo blushes too! There are 3 shades, though I forgot to get the names. This one was the most shimmery. It was really smooth and pigmented

More new products! all 3 of the blushes plus the new Liptastic Glossy Lip Pens. A twist up lipstick in 3 shades- Hot Lips which is a deep bright pink, Lip Lover which is a berry shade and Loud Mouth which is a bright red. These are fabulous, I can't wait until they are released! they are all shimmer free (yes!) and soooo pigmented, like the Barry M lip paints but with a much better texture and in a cool twist up pen style.

That Apple Nano in the pic is a prize for the ambassador to make the most sales this week. If you want to help me out, my code is E6388, enter it at check out and receive a free gift!

Pretty polishes

New London Lips glosses!

The last 3 shades are shimmer free, hurrah! I love it when more affordable brands realise there is a time and place for shimmer.

My favourite one, Portobello- a sheer shimmery golden baby pink that's still got enough oomph to wear alone and smells of sweeties.

I also got to find out the difference between the original Glow cream and the new Extra Glow. The extra glow has silver pink shimmer and the original has golden pink, the extra glow looks brighter and more shimmery and would be lovely for pale skins.

Everyone wrote or drew on the wall as they came in and pics were taken of all the guests and added to it during the evening.

Can you spot my 5 year old esque handwriting? Everyone's looks so lovely and artistic except for my messy scrawl!

I met lots of bloggers and made some great new friends. Sarah from The Daily Polish and I adopted one another as we both came alone. Here's our pic from the wall-

Ignore the poor cropping, I'm useless with the tech stuff.

It was a really fun night, full of lovely people, great products and delicious food and drink. I had to wait 40 minutes in the pouring rain to get my bus home, but it was worth it. What do you think of Eyeko? What are your favourite products and what new products are you most looking forward to?

Eyeko Old Pastel Polish V New

2010-10-03T13:43:00.003+01:00

Ever wondered what the new Eyeko polishes are like in comparison to their old counterparts? Maybe it's just me, but it's been on my mind a while, I wondered just how much better the formula is and if the colours had changed. Last night I went out for Eyeko's 10th anniversary party, it was a great night- more to come on that later. In my goody bag I got the new Pastel Polish, I was wearing the original one anyway so thought I'd do a quick comparison. On first glance, in the darkness of the venue, it did seem a slightly different colour in the bottle, but you don't know 'till you try and the lovely Nina from Eyeko told me the formula was much better. I'd spent ages on Friday night carefully painting 4 slow drying coats, drowning it in David topcoat to achieve a smooth finish, so I was looking forward to seeing whether it was any better.

Well there's good new and bad news guys.

*note- all pics have been taken indoors, on a rainy grey day in London, using flash.*

Here is the original Pastel Polish on it's own

Pastel is such a unique polish. It's a pale duck egg blue but with really yellow undertones, how it manages this without looking at all green is a mystery. It's a creme with a blue pearl overlay, a really unusual finish that almost looks like a layering combo. It is a total pita to apply though.

old v new

you can easily see the difference
3 coats of new Pastel polish on middle finger

The good-

This does apply much better and I got away with 3 coats, possibly could have been 2 if I'd been more careful and not painting in the dark in the middle of the night. The bottle and lid are more comfortable to hold and they are so slender that I can easily squeeze them into the gaps in my helmer.

The bad-

It's clearly a different colour. Pretty much gone is the yellow tone that made this polish so unique (and now we realise why the original was such a pita- what is up with the colour yellow?), it's bluer and darker.

It's still a great polish but doesn't quite have that uniqueness that the original did. I'll wear both, though separately, because they are both gorgeous, but the original will only come out on days when I have the patience of a saint.

Have you tried either versions of Pastel Polish? What did you think and which do you prefer?

Back With A Bang! NOTD Layering With Misa

2010-09-25T12:12:00.001+01:00

I've been absent for ages, I've missed you guys! After my summer of festivals it's been hard to get back into the swing of things. I've had to get up to speed with my band, sort out a lot of things at home (I'm currently having my kitchen renovated) and I'm dealing with a few issues atm. I have psoriasis on my right foot. It was not pleasant before the festivals, but after a couple of months of wearing wellies constantly, it's taken a turn for the worse. My foot currently looks like I have the plague- it comes up in a circular pattern of sore welts. i need to go back to the doctor as soon as I find the time. So enjoying pedis is pretty hard when my feet are so ugly and sore at the moment. I've also been having problems with my nails. I've been suffering with onycholysis, which is lifting of the nails from the nail bed. I've had this on my toes before and literally a toenail fell off. It was happening on both my index fingers and my right ring finger, I was so worried they'd go the same way as my poor toenail that I cut them down as much as possible, removing as much as I could of the nail that had lifted. My nails were a really dodgy shape for a while and I had a lot of exposed nail bed, so I stopped wearing polish for a few weeks. They are slowly getting better now I hope, I can now finally file them pretty much straight and they aren't quite as offensive as they were. However, I'm trying to avoid too many manis, as using remover frequently can't be helping them to heal. so I've not been blogging whilst this has been going on. I could have tried to photoshop out my poor nail, but I thought it better to wait 'till it's less scary and then you can all see it's progress from here on. I could have taken to swatching and other non nail related posts, but I've decided I hate my camera! I need a new one, my pictures are all rubbish. Any camera recommendations guys?

This is my current notd on day 2. It's 3 coats of Misa Be My Lover, 1 thin coat of Lolli Jolly and 1 coat of Misa BREAKneck top coat with a tiny sparkly yellow star sticker accent.

This week has been so busy! I've had the builders in all week doing the kitchen (looks fab btw) and on Thursday my dad surprised me with a pair of tickets to Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych! The show was great, it was almost exactly like the film, word for word. All the songs were straight out of the film and when the leading man said that iconic line "nobody puts Baby in the corner" (personally I've always felt that line was really out of place and pointless- it's not like she was crammed in between a bin and the toilets, but it's still cute) everyone cheered. It was great fun and nice to do something a bit different. Living so close to theatreland it's crazy that I don't go to see shows more often, my boyfriend had never even been to a proper show (James And The Giant Peach does not count!). Dirty Dancing, iconic chick flick or utter drivel? Do you love it? Do you like me, remember trying to do lifts with the boys in the school playground? Lol we did the Lambada too and no, I didn't go to the school featured in Fame xD

After we got in from the show I decided to do a cute fairground inspired mani because we were going to Zippos Circus the next day! I wanted to go last year, but I'd only just moved house and was decorating so it slipped my mind, this year I got a great deal on ringside tickets and I couldn't wait to go! It was a great show, I'd highly recommend it to anyone of any age. There were clowns that were funny and not the kind that a lot of children find scary, jugglers and some fabulous acts, a girl doing some brilliant tricks on a high rope swing like a trapeze, 2 guys balancing on each others hands and heads, a tightrope act that was really unique and some crazy spinning wheel contraption that you'd have to see for yourself because it's impossible to explain. There was also a fabulous act with beautiful Palomino horses doing some sort of synchronised movement that was really clever. I know there's a whole thing about using animals in the circus, but you could see the horses were just brilliantly trained and very much loved and they were only handled to pet and be fed treats. The Ringmaster did a great little act with his trained budgies that was wonderful and so cute! We ate hot dogs and candyfloss and the only thing that would have made it better would have been if there'd been fairground rides as well and not just the show. It's on in Hampstead Heath until the last performance on Tuesday, then it moves again. Go see it whist you can! What do you guys think of the circus? Have you ever seen Zippo's before?

I'm pretty bad at nail art, I can't even do a french mani line straight and guides don't help me, but I'm quite liking the use of stickers as accents. These came from ebay and I've ordered a few more including some water decals from the US, once they get here I'll do a featured post on them.

Have a great weekend guys! xx

NOTD Collection 2000 Bongo Beat

2010-06-18T19:40:00.001+01:00

Quick disclaimer: Please ignore the hole on my index finger, I sliced it whilst cutting up some veg.

When I got back from download I was desperate to change my mani, but also knackered, so I didn't get to do it 'till Tuesday. I was craving something bright and sparkly that screamed summer and showed off my newly tanned hands.

I chose bongo Beat as it's been sitting in my untrieds for a good few weeks now and colour wise it was perfect. This is a fairly new colour that came out around the time I bought it, along with a few other nice summery shades. I'm a bit scared of Collection 2000 though, I find they wear poorly and apply like tinted glue. Everyone seems to love Collection 2000 but me, I have always had problems with their polish. Usually it's alright the first time you use it, but when you go to use it again it's turned into glue. I was tempted to add thinner before I tried it, but thought I'd atleast see what it was like first. It was ok, went on without any real problems, but wasn't smooth and lovely or anything brilliant. It was good in 2 coats, which tbf is standard for Collection 2000.

It's a great colour, I do love it, but I think it makes my nail look really ridged and crap, which other polishes don't seem to and that's with a coat of Seche Vite. I painted my nails on Tuesday evening and by Wednesday morning I had a chip. I took these pics on Wednesday afternoon and you can already see more chips and tip wear.

I always feel like I have to be a bit brave to use Collection 2000, but I probably will use this one again. It was so bright and shiny and looked great in the British sunshine. I changed my mani this afternoon to a long time lemming of mine, Misa's Girl Friday, I love it- pics tomorrow hopefully :)

Back From Festival Number 1! & A Quick Restaurant Review

2010-06-16T11:33:00.001+01:00

Download was mayhem! Pure awesomeness. It rained whilst we were queuing to get in, but the sun did come out for a bit and I managed to get burned. Friday and Saturday were very sunny and my nose is still like a beetroot and peeling in a rather icky way. A combination of face wipes, witch hazel, duac and sunshine left my face peeling like a lizard! ACDC were truly amazing, one of the best atmospheres at Download ever. Only one downer of the weekend was that it absolutely pissed it down during Billy Idol and apparently didn't stop 'till about 11pm. We gave up, went to our tent and fell asleep for about 13 hours! Missed Aerosmith sadly, but it was just too damn cold! My other half also managed to get our coach times wrong and we were so late that we had to pay for another set of tickets. Made it home Monday evening and missing everyone already. Camp Bazinga rocked!

Next week I'm going to a spa for a few days with my grandmother and the week after I'm working at Wakestock; I'm praying the weather improves by then. I've still got a ton of wet clothes to wash!

The Sunday before we left, it was my birthday! We had planned to go to the Camden Green Festival, but ended up staying in and playing Left 4 Dead 2 all day. We went out up the road for a very late dinner to a place called Mango Room. I'd walked past there hundreds of times but never really knew much about it. Whilst looking up local restaurants online, it had great reviews and was so close that we thought we'd give it a go. Now most of you live in other parts of the world, but if you ever visit London, you must come to Camden. It's market is world famous and pretty much every band you've ever heard of has played here. If you do ever make it here, check out Mango Room. The food was amazing! It's Caribbean style, so think sweet potatoes, roti bread, fish, chicken, etc. This is what we had-

I had-

Grilled Scallops- on melon salsa with apple crisps and pomegranate dressing
Char Grilled Chicken - in a coconut sauce
Mango and Banana Creme Brulee

My other half had-

Salt Cod Fritters- with apple chutney
Char Grilled Pork Loin - with jerk sauce and pak choy
Warm Chocolate & Coconut Cake

We also shared sweet potato, roti bread and steamed mixed vegetables.

The food was amazing! My scallops were cooked to perfection, but one bite of my boyfriend's cod fritters and I decided we had to swap halfway through lol. The starters were just the right size too and presented beautifully. The chicken was delicious and the sauce creamy and flavoursome. The pork was swimming in jerk sauce, but it was very tasty. The roti bread was lovely and delicately flavoured, but there was so much of it that we couldn't finish it- lovely to soak up the sauces though! The vegetables were nice, they had asparagus, which is always a lovely inclusion and wasn't over cooked. The sweet potato was cloyingly thick and sweet, absolutely delicious! The creme brulee was amazing- probably one of the best desserts I've ever had. My boyfriend enjoyed his cake, but I was too full to taste it by that point. They also have a rum shack bar and the cocktails were wonderful and flowing all night! Very strong though, so be warned! We turned up at about 10:30 at night for dinner, we weren't hurried at all, the staff were friendly, the table linen was clean and, despite how late it was, the restaurant still had lots of people enjoying food, drinks and good conversation. They are apparently famous for their goat curry, so I might be brave and try it next time, though there is so much on the menu that looks appealing. They also have a lunch menu Monday to Sunday between 12 and 4, which is a bit cheaper. Definitely makes a nice change for Sunday lunch! It was quite good value though, we had an amazing 3 course meal, with sides, 2 cocktails each and an espresso and the bill came to £92 for the 2 of us. Check it out, highly recommended!

Taking a break to rock out

2010-06-08T11:06:00.000+01:00

I'm off to Download Festival tomorrow! Actually I'm leaving this afternoon and staying in a local hotel for the night to avoid hassle in the morning, but I will be camping on site from tomorrow. I'm so excited, there's a group of us that live all over the country and meet up each year to camp together. Plus I get to see ACDC, Aerosmith and Billy Idol!! It's gonna be awesome!

I'm also going to be working at a few other festivals, so I'm going to be insanely busy this summer and not home very much. Blogging is going to be taking a back seat for a short while until things calm down. I will be back soon though.

I hope you all have an excellent summer! :) xxxxxx

$10 Whore Shoes

2010-05-19T13:44:00.001+01:00

Well that was my first thought when I saw these and I'm only the tiniest bit ashamed to say that's why I wanted them. I can't walk in heels, I look like a new born deer attempting it's first steps and they also kill my feet. TG is just not a place for flats though, it's glam up or get out and so I braved the heels. I was a bit tipsy before I put them on and that helped me to forget about them (don't do as I do- I am no role model for anyone), I managed about 4 or 5 hours in them before I had to switch to my flats and I was quite proud of myself! Just to add to the comedy of me going "I'm in heels yay, look at me, I can walk!" they were only about 2 inches high lol.

Here's too many pictures of a pair of shoes that only a mother could love. To call them tacky would be a possible understatement, but then I was wearing a blue and pink pvc army outfit, so it was rather appropriate.

I pretty much have cankles, so let's get that out the way first eh.

I almost forgot to add- these cost me £5 on sale in Select, from £19. They were supposed to be £9 or £8 I think, but one of the bows was half off and it was the last in that size, so I superglued it back on. Ah, just adds to the cheapness of it all.

Help Me Get A Giveaway Going?

2010-05-17T19:13:00.000+01:00

Today I popped into Superdrug and accidentally spent the money I was meant to pay the studio with tomorrow on nail polish, doh! It really was an accident, I forgot I was meant to be keeping it back, but I did feel really guilty when I left the shop and didn't know why 'till my boyfriend reminded me lol. Whoops, it's cool, I will sort it out in a couple of days when I get some more monies and I did get quite a few new pretties which I will show you tomorrow. I'll also take pics of those shoes I wanted to show you, I keep forgetting!

Anyway, I am rambling on as always. I saw some lovely things in Superdrug that I know you girls would love, especially as most of you can't get hold of them in the places that you live. It's just too early to hold a proper giveaway though, I definitely need some more followers to get the ball rolling. So if my lovely readers can help me get to 60 followers I will start the giveaway! I'm not sure what will be in there, but I will definitely include some awesome Gosh and Collection 2000 polishes and there will be a Sleek i-divine palette in there too. So help me get to 60 followers please and the the giveaway can begin! I'll start buying the prizes once I get to 50 followers I think.

~x~

The Best Silver Lining!

2010-05-17T13:59:00.000+01:00

Speaking of silver linings and broken nails, I had a real lucky one on Friday. I had decided to go and get a tip put on my broken index. It was the odd one out with all my nails and, at the time, I really didn't want to lose any length, especially as we were going out on the weekend. So I'm in the salon, waiting for a technician to become free for what seemed like forever, when I decide to go check out their polish selection. They didn't have much tbh, but I did notice one sparkly bottle of polish.

The bottle looked a bit messy and it looked like it was nowhere near full, but I picked it up and had a good look anyway.

Isn't she pretty? "I thought that was an Essie whilst looking all the way across the room," thought I.

I turn the bottle over and say "right my lovely, you are coming home with me." I take the bottle back to the nail station and patiently wait for the technician. As she starts to work on my poor index, I casually ask if I can buy the bottle of said polish. She says it's full to just below the neck, though in the pictures you can see it's almost empty and only reaches to about halfway up the first S in Essie, so they'll take £5 for it. I try to contain my excitement until I leave with my new pretty.

Did you full size that pic? have you guessed who she is yet?

It may be blurred but you should be able to see who I brought home with me. Essie Starry Starry Night!! What a score, though I wish the bottle was fuller and a salon charging £5 for a bottle which is almost empty is a bit silly, obviously for SSN I'm very happy, but if it was for a current Essie you'd be fairly annoyed, in her defence, I couldn't tell how full it was until I'd added thinner at home.

I'm so pleased I finally get to try this polish, I've got a couple of others that might be dupish and I will do comparisons, but both of those are also long discontinued and not quite as blue or jellyish *I think*. Dead happy I am with my score and I'm going to pop back again soon to see what other pretties I can find :)

Super Nubbinz!! Plus ChG Atlantis

2010-05-17T13:33:00.002+01:00

By now you all must realise I'm a bit of a busy chick and don't often get round to posting as much as I'd like to, so I'm going to stop starting off each post with an apology from now on :)

I went to Somerset again this weekend, it was my boyfriend's dad's birthday. We had a nice pub dinner in a lovely country pub and afterwards we went round the back and they had a skittle alley! I had to explain I'd never seen skittles before (for those of you who don't know, it's like manual bowling) and it's definitely either a Somerset thing or not a London thing. I gave it a go anyway, I had the worst score but atleast I did manage to knock some skittles down and they all said I didn't do bad at all for a first attempt. The lads were funny to watch, they chucked the ball so hard they all looked like they had suppressed anger issues lol. I managed to not break a nail, which my boyfriend was worried about before we even left London.

Well, I didn't break one until the next day anyway! I somehow managed to break 3 nails whilst trying to pack up my bag! My ring finger came off completely and tbh I'd just had enough. By this point I had 6 nails that were held together with glue and tea bags and one gel tip. Only 3 had survived the last month or so intact. I had a bit of a hissy fit and debated amputating my hands, then realised I'd struggle to smoke with no fingers to hold a cigarette in. My boyfriend mentioned getting more gel nails or using more tea bags and glue (bless him), but I'd just had enough by that point. I got back to London and chopped them all off. It hurt on some nails because the breaks were below the smile line and actual skin was showing! I hate short nails on me, they tend to make my chubby tiny hands look like a toddlers, but there is a silver lining!

Finally I can wear glitters again! You all know I am pretty much glitter obsessed, but have you tried removing 3 coats of glitter polish using acetone free remover? It is a nightmare, so I've been glitter free for a while now because of al the glue I had on. Also, I don't have to worry about VNL at the moment- because I don't have any free edge! Yay for summer because it's the perfect time to go glitter crazy and also wear all those neons that usually show VNL.

Not to mention the fact that my fingers are more useful now, I can get my finger into a pot of lipbalm- as opposed to using the back of my nail. Also, I'll be able to easily put my tent up and also work with The Big Tent Recycle at the festivals I'm doing this summer.

I'm really proud of my glass-is-half-full attitude.

I had China Glaze Atlantis sitting in my untrieds for a while now. I had glue on atleast 1 nail since the day it arrived and had been too scared to try it without using acetone to get it off. I can't believe how long I waited to try this, it's gorgeous! Even in near darkness it is still super sparkly! This is 3 coats. I accidentally added too much thinner to my Seche, so even after 2 coats sandwiched with basecoat, it's still a bit gritty.

So what do you guys think of my new nubbins? Please excuse any dodgy filing, some nails were broken too low down that I couldn't get it perfect without removing skin!

Saturday Night Party Face

2010-05-05T11:26:00.001+01:00

Last weekend was crazy! We had a bank holiday here in the UK, which usually means lots of fun, booze and party times! I went with a friend of mine to the Torture Garden Birthday Ball, celebrating 20 years of the club. It was great to see the way people expressed themselves, we saw fabulous wigs, outfits and amazing make up! Cameras aren't allowed in the venue though, except official photographers for the event, so we took a few pics before we headed out.

We were a teeny bit drunk when we left - chaos ensued later, so I didn't bother asking anyone to use macro for these pics or to try and get the make up. I just took the one that showed it off the best and cropped it for your pleasure. I wish you could see it more clearly, there was lots of glitter and my lids were neon pink! I got an absolute ton of compliments on my make up that night and I really loved the overall look.

I wish I could apply false lashes, but I totally suck and my mascara did end up a tad clumpy, but it loked fne in the end tbh.

Thunderbirds are go! Actually this is meant to be a military outfit, but I think Thunderbirds seems more appropriate.

I used a whole host of products, but I'll try to do a breakdown-

Face -

L'Oreal Infallible Concealer in 02 Porcelaine

No7 Creme Touch powder in 10 Fair Bloom

Cheeks -

Dessert Beauty cream blush in Juicy

Stardust Cosmetics - Pink Sugar

Boots 17 glowing dusting - discontinued, a drugstore version of YSL Touche blush in a light shimmery pink shade

Eyes-

Urban Decay Primer Potion

NYX Jumbo Pencil in Strawberry Milk

Inner corner - Coastal Scents Red Comet sparks

Inner third - Aromaleigh Psychocandy

Outer two thirds and lower lashes- Barry M Dazzle Dust LED1 (a satiny hot pink)

Blue on the crease- blue from the Sleek Sunset Palette, plus a bit of Bourjois Turquoise Ensoleille

Lower lashes - blue from the Sleek Sunset Palette

Above the crease to blend out - Aromaleigh Twilight Powder in Lustre

Highlight - Revlon Matte Vintage Lace

Tightline and waterline - Urban Decay 24/7 Liner Zero

Glitter patted on top of Psychocandy - Stargazer UV Pink

Upper Lash line - W7 Black Liquid Liner (this stuf is awesome, super cheap and doesn't budge!)

Mascara - Avon Superfull and Armani Eyes To Kill

Brows - I used a random old black eye pencil

Lips-

Rimmel 1000 Kisses Lip Liner in Indian Pink

Barry M Lip Paint in 145

We had a great time on sat, but it was a bit hectic. My friend dragged me around on my new heels (I am totally not used to heels btw - but they are gorgeous and I will post pics soon) and pulled me to the floor, totally ripping off a nail! I currently have a fake one on, but it looks so wrong, too short and not curved enough. I'm not sure when I'll be back to posting NOTD, I think the sight of my nails atm might be a tad unappealing! I ended up losing my friend when I went to get my flats out of the cloakroom, after looking for her for about 40 minutes I grabbed a taxi and went home. All's well that ends well though, we both got home fine and had a fabulous night. Here's to the next TG!

Nail Fail China Glaze Orange Marmalade

2010-04-28T14:21:00.001+01:00

I really do show you everything that I get a chance to photograph! This was an all round fail. It was sitting untried for a couple of months and I thought it would be a nice easy mani because I did it when I just needed a quick happy fix and didn't want anything problematic, I just knew the formula would be good. It was, I managed to do this with no clean up and it went on lovely, but there were problems. Firstly, I still had visible nail line after 3 coats and I have a feeling I might have even done a fourth before just giving up. It was bright and sparkly though, so I thought it wouldn't mater. Secondly, the colour looked bad on me, it made my skin look yellow and sallow I think. In the pictures it looks better, because me skin is washed out. If I was snow white pale (which I nearly am, but not quite) or had a bit of a tan, this would have looked nice, but it didn't sadly. I will keep it for pedis though, as it is really pretty.

right hand

So I put on my Seche, waited a bit and after I was certain it was totally dry, I decided to play a bit of Gears Of War on the Xbox. Now I am right handed and the controls are mainly handled by my thumb and index fingers. So how on earth this happened to my left hand I have no idea!

the horror!

Yup, after an hour on the xbox, I went to bed and saw the state of my poor left hand. It was late, I'd lost all patience and so decided to keep it on until the next day so I could show you pics. It is a very pretty colour and I liked it a lot, but it apparently hated me!

I love my crrent mani, I'm just charging my camera batteries so I can get some pics for you guys :)

Catrice Awesomeness :)

2010-04-27T14:43:00.000+01:00

I got the sweetest and most loveliest gift from one of my favourite polish buddies Splatter Girl :) She sent me some amazing Catrice polishes which we don't get over here; how lovely is that? I've been really down in the dumps lately with a load of crazy things going on and the thoughtfulness of this really touched me. I've not been blogging much lately, but I promise I've not forgotten about it, I just need a bit more normality here so I can find my enthusiasm again.

The one on the left is London Weather forecast, if you want to know what any of the others are, ask in the comments. They are all sitting in my helmer atm.

Lucky In Lilac, Sold Out Forever, Pastel Blue

I can't remember off the top of my head the names of any of these lol.

Here's a NOTD I did with 2 coats of Lucky In Lilac and 1 of OPI Significant Other Colour. Tbh Lucky In Lilac was really thick and didn't self level, but one thin coat of SOC smoothed it all out perfectly and I was planing on layering it with that anyway.

The majority of the pictures only show the peach flash, which I didn't even realise Significant Other has! It does though, I can clearly see it in the bottle, but it usually has a strong green flash.

This one shows the green flash :)

We went away for the weekend to Somerset where my boyfriend is from. One of his friend's son was being christened. It was a lovely weekend, beautiful and sunny and everyone had lots of fun.

I wore this mani all weekend and it lasted extremely well :)

I've got a few more things to show you. My current mani is Strawberry Fields, but I forgot to take pics before it turned into the tip wear mess it is now. I'm off out for my 3rd Lumea session soon, so I'll redo it with something easy before I leave. Speaking of Lumea, it's going very well and I think I can already notice a difference after just 2 sessions. I must say that I managed to do it very quickly last time, so maybe it wouldn't take as long to do other parts as I originally thought.

Remember, if you want swatches of anything, just ask and I will happily oblige :)

Kizzle Bizzle :)

2010-04-15T19:59:00.000+01:00

We've been taking loads of pics of Kizzy lately, mainly because I've started to keep my camera close to hand. She's been acting a bit strange lately, usually she likes to sit on the bottom of our bed when we're in it, but recently she's started sitting between us, plus some other slightly odd stuff as well that is hard to explain coherently. I'm a bit worried she's suffering senile dementia, but there's no way of telling tbh and I'm not 100% certiain how old she is. I got her from a family who no longer wanted her, she was living in the sink and really skinny and shedding hair eveywhere. That first night I took her home, she sat on all of my friends laps and slept on the bed with me :) Her old owners sad she was about 6 and I've had her now for about 6 years I think (my memory is frazzled tbh), so I guess her to be about 12. She seems jolly enough though and gets lots of love so I'm not overly concerned yet.

Fluffy tummy!!

She always looks so evil in pictures, like her mummy she isn't particularly photogenic. I love this pic though, she looks like her usual cute self in it.

I saved the best for last. A total rock godess like her mummy :) I love this pic of her sitting on her daddy's amp. Craig took this one and has asked to be credited for it, all the ones I attempted came out crap. Her eyes look mad, like they're made of fire!